RED BLOOD REUNION

Chapter 2

Liyanne was feeling a bit sick, after waking up from a recurring dream, it was more of a memory than a dream, a traumatic memory that she desperately wanted to forget but couldn't, something happened in the past, eleven years back to be precise, she was trying to move on from what happened but she couldn't.The irony was that she was a counseling psychologist who couldn't deal with her own disturbing past. 

To the outside world, she was a happy free-spirited woman but was suffering in silence, she had no one to turn to,she was afraid that if she opened up what she was going through then something bad will happen.It was a secret that she never wanted to reveal because it  will end her completely if it got out, not just her alone but with the others who knew exactly what happened to him. Something happened and it was only between them, Liyanne and her group were aware of everything that took place on that fateful day Jeremy disappeared without a trace.

It took some hours for Mrs.Gona to finally calm down, the entire station was silent after her deafening screams and cries stopped.She suddenly kept quiet and then she said "I want to see my son, I want to see what's left of him".The Chief Inspector instructed some junior officers to escort the family to the morgue to see Jeremy's remains. Mr and Mrs Gona hurriedly got into the police vehicle while Jenny was a bit reluctant, she disliked the idea of going  there, she still wanted to believe that he wasn't  dead .Chief inspector Maqbul saw how reluctant she was and approached her to tell her something before they left.

"Jenny,I know it's not easy to deal with this. Honestly speaking,I personally experienced something similar to it, I don't know what to say to you because no amount of words can change this , the only thing that I want to say is that I will make sure your brother's killer pays for what he/she did" the chief inspector remarked.

" Thank you Inspector, that has lifted my spirits up,"she said while she forced a smile to convince him that his words were uplifting but they meant nothing to her at that moment.

" Before I forget, Let me give you Jeremy's bag, the one that had been found along with him, the forensics analyzed it in an effort to get some DNA or maybe fingerprints that might belong to the perpetrator but they found nothing, the bag had been buried underneath for a long time, distorting the only possible evidence linked to the killer. Your brother's name and fingerprints were on the items found in the bag .I think it would be safe in your hands,I would have given it to your parents but they don't look to be in the mood,so I decided to hand it to you"Said the Inspector

She was given the backpack and decided to keep it as a reminder of him, She never had intentions of  directly going through the items in it, she just wanted to keep it until the day she would finally get over her grief, that's when she'll check the items. She overheard the inspector telling her parents that the bag contained an old track suit and some high school books , her parents said the bag was not of importance to them, all they wanted was Jeremy himself, his remains, not an old buried bag that  had meaningless items, maybe that's why they were not in the mood to get the bag from the inspector.

They were escorted to the Township Funeral Home, the entire place reeked of strong preservative chemicals, it was hard for them to believe that it was Jeremy, the last time they saw him, he had a chiseled face, slight forehead , Pearly-white crooked teeth , brown complexion , dark natural hair,  grey colored eyes, button nose, lengthy arms and muscular legs.None of those features were present when they saw him again, his athletic body was no more, it was only his skeleton that remained, they looked at him trying to mentally reconstruct his bodily features on those bones that laid before them. She couldn't take it anymore and she just let out a loud cry, her husband  kept on comforting her, Jenny's lips trembled and immediately went out of the morgue, the choking smell of the preservatives affected her sinuses, she threw up the noodles she had for breakfast.Her eyes had become watery, she couldn't stop the tears streaming down her plumped cheeks, it was simply unbearable for her, this wasn't the happy family reunion she expected.

The cries from Mrs. Gona was irritating to the morgue attendants and they were politely taken out to mourn . Something came across Jenny's mind and she quickly wiped her tears, It was about that bag she was given by the Inspector.They were taken back to the station where they had parked their car and drove home.

"Let's see what we have in here" She said while she curiously opened the bag to see the items in it.Maybe Jeremy was not really dead, maybe the remains found were not his, maybe the bag's contents had clues to find the real Jeremy, these were the things that were lingering in her mind, she believed that he was still out there even though she saw his remains, she was denying that it was  her brother's bones that were lying in the morgue.At the back of her mind, something told her it was the cold-hard reality but she refused to believe it, even though it was a fact.

The first item that came out of the bag was a pair of old Nike sports shoes, they had some writings on them, it was written in a permanent black ink and it was in bold;PROPERTY OF JEREMY GONA.He had a way of branding his items so that it would be easy to find them when they got lost or stolen.

The second thing she removed out of the backpack was an old high school track suit, it was the old sports uniform that students of Dingo Bay High used to wear .She quickly moved out the next items, she was starting to get impatient . She went through the books and found nothing interesting in them, it was just some old  textbooks with worn-out covers.she sighed and then cursed obscenities.The bag's contents were just meaningless,they had nothing important,she was just being delusional, there was no clue that was left by him.Jeremy was dead and that was the fact, she decided to listen to her inner voice which was telling her to stop being a fool.Just as she was about to give up  sorting through the stuff,she saw a strange looking book that was different from the rest, It was smaller and  less heavy , she picked it up and opened it. It was Jeremy's brown leather  notebook, it still looked new, she opened the first page and begun reading it, her eyes moved over each and every carefully formatted letter.

As she went through every page reading her brother's personal details,she laughed, laughing at his embarrassing funny moments.After his disappearance, She spent alot of time looking at his photos, hoping that he'll show up someday, of course he never did but reading that notebook made her feel like he showed up, it was as if he was there with her at that point in time, she could feel Jeremy's presence through those words that were written in his own handwriting.  

The only clear memory she had of him was when they played hide and seek, having the best time of their lives, it was a day before he was gone, she always replayed that memory in her mind over and over again.The notebook painted a clear picture of him, she learnt that he was the shy type,he would profusely sweat when he was around girls and would stammer when talking to them even though he wasn't a stammerer . She discovered a different side of him that she never knew existed, he had lots of secrets that had been hidden in those pages, one of those secrets was the name of his highschool crush, her name was Liyanne Njeri.

He described her as a free-spirited  but rebellious girl who was lightskinned and looked like a sassy model.He really liked her ,even the way he described her showed that he was obsessed with her.

The page that followed next shocked her,It was something about Liyanne and her friends.Jenny finally got something important in that notebook, something that explains the events leading to his disappearance.