The Red Moon

Ch- 7: A brother

Bihana was a small town situated on the outskirts of a widespread forest.  Not only us, this whole region was situated the outskirts.  Yes, the forest was widespread and what anyone will imagine to be a city was a bit away from this region.  I mean,  that our town was nothing less than a city , but people do usually think that a city means a huge area of land full of apartments , a lot of noise, streets full of vehicles, a great amount of pollution,  people being awake till late night, clubs,  parties,there is no greenery and even if there is, there is no time to enjoy it...
No , we didn't leave like that.  There was one main road that connected all of the regions and we had small lanes that connected the different places within the town. Like the cities we had a Church,  a market full of people and a movie theatre, one Cafe and one restaurant. Yes, we had only one but it served the small population that lived here.  Mostly,  it was concentrated along the margins of the forest in small houses, made up of wood and bricks. Mostly the wooden huts with glass windows belonged to the forest officials and in one such hut, there happened to be a boy who had injured his leg badly while playing football. This was not trouble for him of course, but it was a huge problem for his aun who happened to work in the restaurant as it's manager. The school released him 5 minutes before the final bell. Well,  yes , the same school as ours of course,  there was no other school in that whole town.
Yes his story is very relevant  because he was my step brother who used to live which is uncle and aunt.  Last year I could not meet him because as I said , he went back home early. I was very eager to know when he was going to recover since there was no way of contacting him. I knew that he was in the same class as Fredrick. So,  once after dinner, I asked Fredrick,  " Do you know Clement ? "
Frederick looked at me as if he was very surprised. Then he asked, "  how do you know him ? "
Before I could utter a word , uncle replied, " Step brother,  Frederick. "
I was amazed.  I looked at him in shock.  My lips parted away from each other.
Uncle looked at me and his eyes told me as if he had done a mistaken.  Immediately, he has been able to understand it. He awkwardly smiled at me.
As for me, I did not think I have met uncle before that night.  It was the first time I had met him. If indeed he was so close a friend of my father that my father could trust him with his young daughter , then how come I never saw him before ?  How come I don't remember my father talking about him ?  I pressed my eyebrows closer to each other as a thousand unanswered questions came in my mind.  Presently, Fredrick nodded his head and replied back to me, " Yes,  today his aunt came,  but he has recovered. From this Monday , I guess he will be returning home alone.  Probably you will be able to meet him on Monday . " I nodded .
If I was supposed to meet him on Monday, then I have two days  time in hand. If I could utilise the full time, his gloves will be completed.  Yes,  last year I could not make anything for him because as I stated earlier I did not know when I will be able to meet him. He didn't even participate in the celebrations of Christmas, he did even come as an audience. Probably his aunt did not allow him to. Truly, she have had enough trouble with him.
I set myself to work. As expected,  I could finish his gloves in time. My desire to meet him has been intensified over the year as I felt stuck in the shabby house of the Williams. It used to be cold and not even the fireplace could make it warm for me . When I was out on the streets, the thought of walking back to that same house on my on very foot dreaded me and I shivered from top to bottom. The only room that used to be properly lit up with lights was mine own. The dining room , the staircase, the kitchen and in the rooms of my family members into which access was provided to me all seemed to be consume with a kind of feeling that declared the existence of something unnatural. Even though there seemed to be that are people to talk to me about my day and discuss my problems with me, yet I kind of felt separated from the rest. I felt no connection of hearts,  no memory to be cherished was created . It seemed to be a monotonous routine which I could not enjoy. Probably life would've been angry at me because even though I was uplifted from a condition of starving to a condition of getting full plate meals at four times a day, still I was unhappy.
I felt a kind of gratitude in my heart towards the members of that house and this compelled me to lie enjoy life over there, even though there was nothing to enjoy. Nobody ever ate with me at lunch , at dinner,  at breakfast and not even the evening snacks.  So there happened to be no sharing of meals and no discussions about favourite foods . Yes,  they used to surround me at dinner time but that was probably the only time of talking that I received.  whatever discussions and sharings I wished to do,  all had to be done in that short period. Mostly I found myself listening to the stories of others. They laughed and reminded each other about different kinds of memories they had with each other. I felt left out when I looked at their happy faces.  I got reminded of my lost family time,  which I knew was never going to come back.