The Son of Thunder

Mom

    

Throughout the rest of the day I kept thinking about what had happened in school. True, dad had enrolled me for some martial arts training which I sucked at, and I was never confident about my skills...I always thought it didn't matter... But what happened today wasn't ordinary.. I knew so much that martial arts doesn't exactly give you super human reflexes.. I had felt invincible today... and the electricity...it had felt so good as it coursed throughout my body, but were did it come from?
And the Janitor; what was that evil I felt emanating from him? Today was crazy.

Of course I didn't plan on telling my parents about it..They'd freak out and we'd have to move...again. I hated moving. So far, this was the 6th time we've moved in 4 years and all without a valid explanation from my parents. I knew they didn't like to move but I don't think they had any options.
Although while I was growing up, I began to notice that strange things happened whenever we stay in a place for too long. Weird fire outbreaks, thunderstorms in October, hot weather in winter, strange visitors and mom's nightmares. Some nights she'd scream from a nightmare and start shaking and crying. When I asked her about it, she would just shrug me off and say she was okay, but I knew that always meant it was time to start packing.

Dad on the other hand was always working in his study or is away on a trip. He was a brilliant historian and archeologist and sometimes mumbled to himself about lost relics and stuff like that. Yeah my family is weird. He was away however on one of those trips in Nigeria and was supposed to return in a few days time.
I strode into the house at 2pm and met my mom doing the laundry.
"Ekaale' ma", I greeted in Yoruba, hoping she wouldn't notice my rough clothes that for some reason, were a little singed at the edges.
"Kaale' Dylan. How was school, today?" She asked in her funny Yoruba accent.
"It was okay", I lied. Go and take a shower and bring those clothes, since I'm doing laundry", she said.
"Umm, don't worry about it. I can do it myself".
"Are you sure?" She inquired, not very convinced that I just offered to do my own laundry.
"Yeah, sure", I said reassuringly.
"Okay then", she said.
I went to my room upstairs and shut the door, then plopped down on my bed, clearly exhausted. I was still drained from today's fight.
To be honest I felt quite good about today. The way I moved and evaded those punches, it was like that spider man movie where Tobey Maguire got into a fight with Flash and everything was in slow motion. That would teach Caleb not to mess with me or my friends again.
"Ring!". I was startled by the telephone ringing in the hallway. Mom went to go get it and the next thing I heard was...
"Dylan!!", mom yelled as she stormed into my room looking really pissed and ready to smack the electricity outta me.
"Your Principal just called to let me know that you got into a fight in school", she said, clearly disappointed.
I went into my bag and brought out the letter, handing it over to her.
"How could you? What happened? Why didn't you tell me?" She inquired while checking to see if I was hurt.
"Mom I'm fine", I replied.
"Some guys were picking on me and my friend so I asked them to stop but they started beating us up and I fought back", I explained.
"I told you to run the other way when you see trouble, didn't I?" She retorted.
"What if you got really hurt?" She continued looking very concerned.
"Mom I can't keep running every time someone harasses me. I'm not a coward neither am I a child to be worried for!", I responded with a bit of anger in my tone.
My mom was taken aback by my outburst and went quiet for a while. She stared at me with her brown eyes. I must have hit a nerve and I knew I was in for it. Oops!
"You're grounded for a month! No TV or phone till you learn to follow instructions!", She declared.
"But..! I wasn't...", I protested.
"I didn't kill my own mother so you will not kill me with your stubbornness!", She said signaling the end of the conversation and then left my room, taking the letter with her.
"Wait till your father hears about this", she said before slamming the door.
I could tell she was hurt by my reply. But it wasn't fair. I was only trying to protect myself, I thought.
I sighed heavily trying to control my raging emotions as I plopped on my bed and looked at the ceiling before slowly drifting off into unconsciousness.