6 Brothers and Me

Chapter 8

"What the hell Ivy." Alex says throwing down the tape on my bed, "We need to show this to mum."
"No, we need to listen to it," I say picking the tape up and pulling my eyes down.
"Fine." He snatches the tape and reluctantly sulks down on my bed.
"Thank you." He plays the tape and it continues.
"I'm Robert Michel Stark, it Thursday the 3rd of June 2014 and I'm on the Bumble Beach, pirate cove." His voice was warm but gruff and went higher when he wanted to emphasise and lower when he didn't.
Bumble beach, that was the one down south, but pirate cove I had never heard of that before but there were millions of coves down on the beach. I wonder why he was there? He continued by talking to each of the boys and telling them that they should look after each other and Alex looked confused and he was trying to hold back tears.
Then he came to me, "And Ivy, my favourite daughter, never give up on your dreams and, even though your brothers may annoy you, always remember they love you."
I looked to the ceiling trying to hold back my tears, it was like he knew he was going to die, which made me feel horrible.
"Now a side note, 'za vami vsegda nablyudayut, Genron pridet za vami, tak chto bud'te ostorozhny, rybatskaya lodka, dvenadtsat' futov pod, sorok pyat', tri'. I love you all so much." The recording ended and I was very confused.
"Ivy, what was that?" Alex turned to me bitting his lower lip awkwardly.
"I have no idea." It sounded German or Russian.
"Yeah, but it was weird." He says smiling awkwardly hiding his true feelings.
"Do you think it was Russian?" I ask talking about the weird message.
"Maybe, let's show someone, but not mum." He stands up nearly hitting his head on my low hanging light.
"Yeah, I think she's going out to meet up with someone soon so we can tell them then," I say not looking up as he walks out but instead fiddling with the tape trying not to cry.
Although I tried to hold back tears, it didn't work, and I soon felt my eyes brimming with tears, my nose twitching and cheeks reddening. Memories flooded back like someone had knocked the dam I had been building since his death, I laid my head down onto the pillow staring up to the ceiling.
Around five minutes later I heard the front door opening and closing again, mum was out, this was the time we had to show the tape to the boys. I grabbed the phone from my desk and begin to wide the tears out of my bloodshot eyes. Once the tears had gone I went into the bathroom to pat my face with cold water to get rid of the puffiness and reddened cheeks.
"Ivy, are you in there." I hear Alex knocking on the door.
"Yeah," I reply putting down my face with a dry towel.
I open the door, hoping he doesn't realise I've been crying, and force my lips into a smile forgetting about my eyes- it ends up being a false, downcast smile but a smile overall.
"Let's do it," he says pulling out the tape and knocking on the boys' doors. I go other and knock on Harry's and Louis's don't beckoning them downstairs to talk.
It only takes a few minutes, in which we had to drag them, to get all downstairs into the living room.
Alex begins the conversation leaving the tape in his pocket to begin, "Ivy has something she wants to tell you all."
Oh, great put it all on me, "Thanks, " the sarcastic to come through slightly too much, "Sorry, well I was in the attic last night looking for the photos when I stepped on a nail and fell into a box while hopping around."
"Get on with it," Jacob says smiling smugly.
"Well, I found a tape from father." which shocked him into shutting up.
"Father?" Louis whispers looking down.
"Yeah," I say as Alex reaches for the tape passing it to Chandler.
"Well have you listened to it?" Chandler says flipping it over.
"Well-" I start trying to avoid the question.
"Yes, we have," Alex replies.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the emptiness in the rest of the boy's eyes: Harry stares to the ceiling, Louis fiddles with his hands, Marty bites his lips and even Jacob seems to be switching his eyes around.
"Well, what did it say?" Jacob says trying to avoid people seeing he's nervous.
Chandler begins to play the tape to the rest of the boys and their reactions seemed the same as I expected, exciting and ten confused at the Russain. In the end, everyone was speechless.
"So that was the tape," I say smiling at them falsely.
"Yeah, and what the hell was up with the Russian," Jacob says confused.
"No idea," Alex says.
"Can you replay it, I can translate it," Louis says pulling out his phone and searching up a translator.
Alex begins pushing it back to the beginning of the Russian, "za vami vsegda nablyudayut, Genron pridet za vami, tak chto bud'te ostorozhny, rybatskaya lodka, dvenadtsat' futov pod, sorok pyat', tri"
"It means, 'you are always watched, Ganron will come for you, so be careful, fishing boat, twelve feet under, forty-five, three," he says and each word more and more confused.
"Sorry what?" I say under my breath.
"Are you joking because it's not funny?" Chandler says snatching the phone.
"I'm not," Louis says reaching for his phone back.
Just then the door sprang open causing us all to jump, "Could someone help me bring the shopping in from the car."
"Of course mum," I say pulling the tape into my pocket, giving my brothers some eyes so they don't tell mum and walk out to help.