4- The Window

I stood at their bedroom door, completely astonished at what I had just heard from the other side of the door. 

The house telephone began to ring again. 

“Elijah, I thought we agreed that we would not talk about this again.” My mother said, sounding so disappointed and upset with her husband. 

As I continued to stand there, completely taken aback, their bedroom swung wide open. It was my mother coming out of the bedroom, looking furious and upset. She had tears rolling down her cheeks from anger. 

“Can you not hear the phone ringing?” she asked me as soon as she saw me standing at the door. 

She headed straight for the phone and answered it while my father remained in the bedroom, sitting on the bed. 

“How long have you been standing there?” he hissed at me 

“Long enough to know I should have been married ages ago, or us suddenly being broke or Mom getting sick once again,” I replied, then walked away. 

“...No, no. She is not here.” Mom replied to whoever she was talking with on the phone. “Okay, thank you… You too.” she hung up and then looked at me. 

“Who was that?” I questioned

“Maybe you should have just answered the phone instead, and then you would have known who it was.” she snapped at me. “Anyway, it was your aunt. She wanted to know if you were here so that she could stop by with her husband to see you, but I did you a favour by telling her that you were not here.” 

She stomped to her bedroom and slammed the door once she entered. 

“And give us privacy to discuss a few things. We do not need you roaming around the door,” she added as she opened the door and then slammed it again. 

Feeling completely astonished at what I had just heard, I rushed back to my bedroom. I found Roni still fast asleep on the same uncomfortable chair I left her on. I proceeded to wear my more comfortable clothes and make sure I was free of anything that screamed I had a wedding or was supposed to be in a wedding. 

After crawling back into my dusty clothes, I tiptoed back to the hallway to stand by my parents’ bedroom door. 

“So, what’s the plan?” Mom asked my father in a hushed tone, hoping I would not be able to hear them if I was still standing in the hallway. 

He did not reply. I assumed he was thinking of an answer. He was probably crafting some new scheme. 

“I was thinking of calling up Alessandro to help me with a few things.” He eventually answered her

“Andro?” she questioned in shock.

“Yes, Alessandro Russo, my best pal from elementary school,” he replied, sounding casual.

“Oh no… We can still think about what our next step would be and then pray about it, and then, at the right time, something will pop up.” Mom answered worriedly 

“Why? What’s wrong with Andro?” Dad questioned. 

She kept quiet. They both did. I heard footsteps in their bedroom. One of them was pacing, or probably both of them. The situation that my ex-fiance put me in made it an even tougher situation for my parents to ponder over. 

“Can’t she just get another job?” Mom asked, still in a hushed tone.

“You know how difficult your daughter can be. No one would want to work with such. Remember, Robbins chased her away, Brown also chased her away, and she did not even make it past her probation period with Jackson. So, getting a career is definitely an impossible task for her.” My father replied. 

There was pacing in the bedroom again. I did not know my parents wanted to marry me off that much that they sat in their bedroom to think about the next step. 

“Well, don’t you have connections with that guy from the tech support office? I mean, she has helped out there a few times.” Mom asked, hoping there was a way. 

“Dave from tech? No, no… The last time she was there, she spent the whole time batting her short eyelashes and taking selfies. And then, in the remaining minutes, she tried to flirt with Dave just to ensure she had a place there. I do not think proposing that my youngest daughter working there would make Dave happy at all.” 

Half of whatever my father was saying was completely false. I did not even flirt with that Dave guy. I accidentally touched him but never flirted with him. 

“Well, isn’t there another way? I will ask my ladies from the book club if she can dog-sit or tutor their children.” My mom tried to find a way. 

“What’s wrong with Alessandro Russo?” Dad questioned tiredly

“Seriously, Eli! You’re going to ask that foolish question?” 

There was silence again. I dared to tiptoe my way closer to the door, hoping I would get to hear about this Alessandro man and why my mother seemed not to trust him. 

“Well, Alessandro is that guy you call on when things start hitting rock bottom, and right now, from the looks of things, they are definitely hitting rock bottom for us.” My father answered. 

I was able to hear them much better when I stood closer to the door, but I feared that if one of them suddenly opened the door, I had no escape route. 

“Eli, we can sleep on it. We can do some thinking and praying together, maybe even fast. I know there will always be an answer.” she whined, and all he did was scoff. 

“I don’t know why you have such little faith in my friend Alessandro. He is good, and he has a lot of money, and he even has wider connections. It can at least help us keep our head above the water, and then when everything is stable, we will be able to pay him back and carry on with our normal lives.” 

She sighed. I knew that my mother was definitely not on board with whatever crap was coming out of my father’s mouth. 

“But why him?” she hoped there was another solution

“Why not?” 

“Honey, Alessandro almost killed you the last time you ‘trusted’ him. I am just a little worried, that’s all.” 

“That’s in the past now, dear,” he responded. 

I gasped in shock, almost exposing the fact that I was standing by their door.

What did my mother mean by Alessandro almost killing my father? Was it metaphorical or literal? 

I decided to walk away from their door. I grabbed the car keys that were on the coffee table in the living room and rushed outside. I quickly climbed into my dad’s car and hoped it wouldn’t make much noise or that they were too distracted in yelling at each other. 

I reversed out of the yard and raced towards Christopher’s house to find him. I had no idea what I would do when I saw him, but I just wanted to at least see him one last time. I reached his house, and I was more than surprised to find another car parked in his yard. 

Maybe family members also came to look for him? 

I parked the car and walked towards the front door. I pressed the doorbell, and it rang a couple of times, but there was no reply. His car was also parked at home, and I knew that we wouldn’t go anywhere without his car. 

I slowly walked around the house to his bedroom window. I found the windows wide open, so I stepped in the soil and a few of the flowers in the garden by that window, stuck my hand through the burglar-proof bars and pushed the curtain aside. 

“WHAT THE HELL?!” I yelled in complete terror.