Ten Reasons to Have Hope

Soulmates

Sunday, December 23rd

The 10 a.m. alarm woke them up for church and Samuel's eyes peeled open in a fuzzy daze.He sat up to see Alan already up, drying himself off after getting out of the shower."Morning, sunshine," Alan said, putting his glasses on. Alan already had on his nice slacks and he was digging in his drawers for a nice shirt. Samuel slid out of bed and stretched. "Good morning."Alan slipped on a white button-up shirt and said, "I'm going to go walk around and make sure the girls are up. Let's try and leave in about an hour, you can shower if you need.""Sure, thanks."Alan walked down the hall and knocked on Samantha's door, she told him to come in."Hey, Oyster.""Hi dad."Alan noticed she hadn't gotten up yet. "You okay?""Yeah, I'm just thinking." "What about?""You met Samuel a little over a week ago, and exactly a week ago today I met Jonathan." She lied back down on her pillow. "It doesn't make sense to me how so much can happen in a week. You only knew Samuel for less than a week and now you two are in love, why can't that happen to me?"She looked over at him, who was leaning against the doorway. "I meet someone who I think is the one, you meet someone you think is the one, you fall in love, and I get attacked.""Oh, baby." Alan said, walking over to sit on her bed next to her. "You'll find your one.""But what if I don't? Like I said, you fell in love with Samuel in literally like five days, and it took one day for me to fuck my life up for good."His daughter's language caught Alan off guard, but he continued to nod in silent support. "I just wish I could find MY Samuel, someone who I just click with right away.""You will. How did you mess your life up by being with Jonathan?""I don't know what he did to me. He hit me and I don't remember anything until I hit him with his desk chair. He could have had sex with my half corpse for all I know."Alan shook his head. "I'm proud that you fought him off like you did."Samantha nodded. There was a long silence while both Samantha and Alan thought about the incencent. It hurt Alan that he let his daughter into a situation like this, where both were in the dark and neither knew what happened. It was scary to think that neither people knew what actually happened when Samantha's vision went dark. Jonathan was a foul, discusting boy. "I can't believe he did that to you." Alan said. Samantha just shook her head and sat up and let her legs slip out over the side of the bed. She leaned forward and put her forhead in her hands. "I can't believe I let it happen. I'm so stupid.""You're not stupid. It isn't your fault.""But what if it is? What if I said something that just threw him off, maybe I just wasn't clear enough.""It's not your fault that boy is a monster. You didn't do anything wrong."Samantha went quiet again as she thought about everything that happened again."Can I skip church today? Just this once?"Alan would like to say no, but, he did understand where she was coming from. "I need to think." She said, looking at up him for a direct answer. Alan nodded. "Just this one time.""Thank you."He smiled and shut her door. He continued to make sure both Jackie and Adeline were awake, then he went back up the stairs to his bedroom.Samuel had on a gray shirt and a blue tie. He didn't have pants on, he was digging for some when Alan walked in, which he thought was funny. "Welcome back, stranger.""Hey, Samuel."Alan sneezed and Samuel blessed him."Samantha's skipping church today." Alan said, taking a tissue off of the dresser. "What? Why?""Her mind is wrapped up with the whole Jonathan situation. I don't blame her.""Oh, shit." Samuel stuck his leg into a pair of pants. "Is she okay?"Alan shrugged. "Well, we successfully got that little girl out of that house, but that's not enough.""What do you mean?""I want to ruin that young man's life.""Wait, what?""He hurt my girl, and I want to hurt him.""You're not going to get yourself arrested, right?"Alan shrugged, which caught Samuel off guard because though he had only known him for a little over a week, he knew Alan wouldn't hurt a fly."Samantha told me this morning that she thinks he ruined her life." Alan said, spinning his thumbs like he always did when he was deep in thought."Yes, and?""Jonathan is 18 years old, a legal adult, right?""Yeah...""Samantha is 17, a minor, right?""Oh..."Alan nodded, and a sinister smile materialized on his face. "You better bet your ass I'm going to be making a phone call after church, but in the meantime, let's pray to God that he goes to hell."Alan left the room to go make breakfast and Samuel stood there, thinking about the minimum information Alan had just given him.He pulled out his phone and did a few Google searches to try and figure out what it was that Alan just said.Allegations of child molestation alone are enough to ruin someone's life, carreer, future, and the sorts, so if whatever Alan's planning doesn't work, Jonathan is pretty well done for. Samuel sighed and put his phone in his pocket and headed downstairs for the wonderful breakfast he was sure that Alan would prepare. Following church, there was a complementary brunch to celebrate the holiday season. There was a large christmas tree in the back room where the meal was, and the tree was surrounded by around fifty presents, most of them probably just wrapped shoe boxes to fill space. Alan messaged Samantha and asked her if she wanted to have lunch with them and a few other church goers, and she refused saying she had already eaten a can of spaghettio's for lunch.Alan slipped his phone back into his pocket and looked up. He couldn't help but notice a familliar head of blonde hair amongst the croud. To his dispise, he recognized him as the last person he expected to see in a church, and his family.It was the Jacobs'. Krista, Adam, and of course their wonderful son, Jonathan. Alan saw that Jackie saw them too. "Ah, crap." She mumbled and sank down in her seat. Of course, they noticed Alan and Jackie both pretending to not have seen them, pretending to have some random conversation. Krista approached the pair and looked at Jackie first. "Hello, Jackie. Nice to see you again.""Hi." Jackie responded uncomfortably."So," She looked at Alan. "Has she drove you crazy yet?" Her face showed calm, friendly, and even motherly intentions, but her tone said differently."No, not yet," He said, looking over at her. "She's a peach. Fit in just right." He smiled at her and she smiled back, struggling to ignore that her 'mother' was quietly looming over them.She could feel her sneer on her back. "I bet she fit in just fine." Krista said, her smile fading away. "Fit in with a bunch of other kids no one wanted."Alan was, to say the least, shocked. "Excuse me?""Oh, I was just pointing it out." Krista said. She picked at a nail and looked down at them. "Your girls are orphans, aren't they?""Orphans?" Alan's jaw dropped. He had never referred to his children as orphans, he had only referred to them as his own children."Yes, orphans. No mommy, no daddy. Just fill-ins."Adeline and Samuel returned only to hear this after getting some food. "No, that is my daddy." Adeline pointed to Alan and Samuel tried to get her to walk away, but it was too late. Krista's attention was on her. "Honey, no. That man is a homosexual, he isn't your daddy."Alan looked at Samuel, and Samuel understood.He picked up Adeline as she tried to come up with a response, only to think about it too hard and never get the chance to defend her daddy. Jackie stood up with him and followed as quickly as she could.It was just Alan and Krista now. "Can I ask you to repeat whatever the fuck you just said to my daughter?" Alan whispered to her. Krista got close. "You are a faggot, therefor you can't reproduce. Get it in your head." She smiled. "I can't believe Jackeline choose an interracial gay couple and a couple of orphans over her own loving parents."Alan said something in response that he's been wanting to say for days. "Listen here," he said."I have shown that girl more love than she's ever been shown. I know about everything. I know about your affair. I know about Adam's alcoholism. I know about the abuse."He gritted his teeth. "And I know what your fucking son did to my daughter, and I'm going to ruin your lives. All of your lives."He backed up and smiled at her. "Thank you, by the way, for signing the paperwork." He said. "Jackie is no longer your responsibility.""I'm estatic.""Now if you excuse me, ma'am," he said, walking to her side. "I have someone I'd like to talk to."Alan walked past her, headed straight for that head of blonde hair that got them into this mess."Excuse me, young man?" Alan said, tapping on his shoulder. Jonathan turned around, his face lighting up in recognition. "Mr. Howland, how are you?""Doing well, how are you." Alan responded, emotionless. "I'm alright. How is Samantha doing? Is she here? I'd like to talk to her again, I haven't seen her in about a week.""She's doing great, I'm afraid you won't be able to speak to her for a long time.""Oh?" Jonathan glanced over to the side. "And why's that?""Oh, I don't know," Alan squinted his eyes at him. "It could either be becuase she's blocked you on every social media, or because by the time you get a chance to reach out, you'll already be rotting in prison.""Excuse me, Mr. Howland? I think you have me mistaken-""Cut the shit, Jonathan. I know what happened.""Really." He said, hand on one hip. "What happened.""Why don't you tell me.""Gladly. Samantha came into my room after her shower and dropped her towel. She said she wanted it. So, I gave it to her."Alan was disgusted with what he was hearing, and he believed none of it. He let him continue. "She woke up early in the morning said she wasn't feeling well, so I dropped her off at your place and Jackie tagged along because she wanted to have a sleepover. Do you want to add on? What did she tell you I did, quiz her?""What was she wearing when you dropped her off." Alan asked, tilting his head to the side. "Why would I remember that, sir, that's obsurd.""What time did she ask for you to take her home.""I don't know, seven a.m.?""Wrong answer. Where did you get that bruise?" Alan pointed to his nose. "I fell. What the hell do you want, Alan.""Wrong answer.""Why are you asking me so many questions?""Because I want to see if you know the story that you yourself wrote.""What story?""The story that you're going to have to tell a judge." Alan smiled, and looked him in the face. "Have a nice day, Jonathan."Alan walked away and found Samuel, Adeline, and Jackie. "It's time to go home."Alan was quiet during the walk. This week it wasn't as cold, so Adeline again talked her father into letting them walk to and from. Adeline was carried on Samuel's shoulders the entire walk back and most of the walk to, which Jackie thought was humorous. "Alan? You okay?" Samuel looked over at Alan, who was doing the thing with his thumbs again. "Yeah," He responded. "I'm fine."The crew turned the corner on the same corner Samantha ran into Jonathan for the first time, but this time there was just a stray dog that ran by. Alan's mind was in a place that he couldn't help it. He was imagining every single made up situation in his head that he could possibly be the worst person in the world. He wanted to see in the news ten years down the line that Jonathan Jacobs had gotten beaten to death for what he did by the other inmates. That wasn't the darkest thing that Alan had imagined happening to the boy, but that was the worst thing he let come out of his mouth.He didn't want Samuel thinking that anything was mentally wrong with him, that's all. They walked up the drive and into the house and Jackie and Adeline went to their seperate rooms to do their own things, while Alan and Samuel went to their own. Alan was still being quiet, so Samuel nudged him with his shoulder. "You in there, Alan?"He nodded. "Yeah, I'm still thinking about how I'm going to screw with that little shit."Samuel could tell, by the swearing, that Alan was in the same state he was in before they left for church. "You want to know what he told me?" Alan said, flailing his arms up in the air. "You wanna know?"Samuel nodded and sat down. "What was his side?""He told me that Samantha stripped in front of him and they had "consentual sex". And she woke up at seven because she felt sick, so him, being the fucking gentlemen he is, drove her home.""What did he say about the big-ass bruise on his face from the chair.""I fell," Alan quoted with air quotations with his hands. "You can't get a bruise that big from slipping. She hit him with a desk chair! How do you fake that!""What did he say about Jackie?""That she wanted to have a sleepover.""That's rediculous." Samuel leaned forward. "Are we going to tell Samantha?"Alan shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I threatened her ex boyfriends' mom, what is there more to tell her?"Alan sighed. "I need to take a nap. Like... Really bad." He rubbed his eyes. "Will you keep the kids occupied?"Samuel nodded and stood up off the bed as Alan pulled off his tie and tossed it on his dresser and Samuel looked away for a second to yawn.When he looked back at him, he wasn't wearing pants and Samuel's eyes darted away. When he looked back again, he was wearing sweatpants and he was walking towards the bed. He crawled into bed and pushed his face into his pillow. Samuel walked over to him and sat down. "I'm sorry about what that lady said to Addie."Alan shook his head and rolled over. "I've never disliked a woman more in my life, and I was disowned by my own mother."Samuel sighed. "I'll go take them to the park or something." He smiled and leaned down and kissed him, quietly leaving the room."Samuel? What was your first love like?" Samantha asked Samuel. "Oh, I don't know. Why?"She shrugged her shoulders. "I've just been thinking.""About what?""How incredible it is that you and my dad met by some extremely strange coincidence that doesn't make any sence, and you literally fell in love in under a week, and now you're a couple?""That is strange.""I'm jealous. I want something like you and dad have, I want something that I can brag about-" She paused. "Well, I mean, that isn't really something to brag about, but, you know.""I gotcha.""I just want to find my soulmate, that's all. Someone who can take away all the pain of everything and just make everything better over all."Samuel nodded. "Whatever a soulmate is," she added. "What do you mean?""What is a soulmate?" She asked him. He shrugged his shoulders. He thought about how he and Alan both felt a ting when they met. How both of them had gone through pain with the loss of their parents, how they both tried to end their lives over them. He wanted to tell Samantha what he was thinking, but he didn't really know. "I guess a soulmate is just your soulmate, the one you were meant to be with from the start." Samuel finally said. He had no idea what he was saying. He just assumed that's what a soulmate was. He couldn't think of anything else.One thing he was sure of, though, is that Alan was his. The way he felt about Alan was something he couldn't describe, which was why he didn't describe it to Samantha when she asked.Love is something you can't describe, it just simply is. It's something that no one but God could control, and it's something that no matter how hard you try, you can't find a description to match it.Especially when he thought about Alan. He couldn't figure out what it is about him, but Samuel could never stop thinking about him. It began to stress him out to think about Alan to that extent, but nonetheless, he couldn't wait to get back to his home and see his favorite person.