BOUND BY DESTINY

CHAPTER FOUR

The party was blowing full swing at my parents' home - music blasting from the speakers in the backyard, red solo cups all over the living room and balcony and empty flutes of champagne and glassed all over the kitchen counters. The living space looked like a battlefield although still as beautifully decorated as when I first came in. But contrarily to other usual parties, this one was clearly different.

Firstly, the music blasting through the stereos was purely country or rare pop songs but all known but the community, nothing to do with the techno or disco pop songs from hunger parties. Also, the people moving in and out of the house, were all from the neighborhood or of the family and friends we had closed bonds with. So no horny strangers in the sight. Lastly, the bar offered non-alcoholic beverages, not even the champagne did contained alcohol, except the traditional wine made fruits from palm trees, we called 'matango' in central Africa. It was one of my deceased dad's friend from that part of the world who had brought it earlier in the day.

The backyard garden had been organized into an outdoor dinner area for our guests - the tables were decorated with little objects and maps replica of my dad's adventures and all his findings - we couldn't possibly place the real things, so this will do. The tablecloths were all black as well as the linens, glass seats and black and gold surrounded the tables that could host more than 20 peoples. There was also a similarly decorated smaller table, I guess were for the kids. From the way the different symbolic relicts of my dad and the cutlery and deco-objects were placed on both tables, I knew already who did the set-up without a doubt, I just wasn't sure where the person was.

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By dinner time, most of the guests had arrived and all settled at the dining room in the backyard. The sun was high in the sky but the trees in our garden shaded perfectly the area. Also, the lake visible from afar gave the place a peaceful atmosphere, it was a perfect time for something like this.

Everybody was already seated, either engaged in conversation with peers or devouring their meal, which was a mixture of culture; there were dishes from all over the places my dad had visited - French recipes, along with European specialties and American dishes. There was also Mexican cuisine as well as most of western and central Afrikaners traditional meals and Indian's food, as well. It was really a site to behold.

We listened to the stories of my dad's adventures from his friends in the marines who have always been uncles to me and my siblings. The epic tales of how he met each and every one of them, the funny anecdotes and sad stories, but I always looked up to the story of how my parents met and their sacrifice for true love. It was really romantic and even if she told the story every year, I never got tired of hearing about how true love wins.

Sometimes during Lady Trudy's tale on how my dad had helped recover the long-hidden gold of her family's tribute, we were interrupted by a loud bang of a door closing, then tapping sound of heels on the marble floor of the house, coming towards us. Everybody kept silent, waiting to see what or rather who caused the commotion, even the kids were quiet, which was telling. Then we finally spotted the obnoxious face of the culprit who smiled innocently at us, as if she didn't just cause our hearts to stop for a moment.

"HOLA FAMILIA DI MI!!" she chanted excitedly, and everyone was quiet for a second then burst out laughing in unison, surely relief that it was just Jenna.

I saw the twins, Kelly and Keisha running up to her for hugs and kisses, along with the other kids from our neighborhood and those whose parents were friends with dad, probably just following the rest. She crouched down to their level and gave all the kids hugs and kisses on their cheeks, then removed what looked like to packets of sweet gums from her handbag. It caused the kids to squeal with excitement, running off back into the house with the packets like a trophy. She was surely gaining bonus aunty points with the kids. Asshole.