The Raven Conspiracy

Chapter 10 - The Bad News

Chapter 10 – The Bad News

My mom was not pleased that I lost the job. After getting a scolding for being irresponsible (the reason she assumed) and inconsiderate (for giving her more stress), I was sent to the room I shared with my ten-year-old sister, Margaret. Only when baby Abbey started wailing, upset by our mother’s mood, was I summoned to calm her. I received another earful of “now that you’re jobless, you can at least make yourself useful around the house and clean your bleeding room!” without protest. I didn’t even bother arguing that it was Meg’s side that was the mess and resisted the temptation to bribe my brother into peeling potatoes for me. If mom saw that I was willing to repent, she would lighten up.

I couldn’t really blame her for being angry with me. Getting a job was supposed to make things easier for her. She took on too much stress at work, and then had to come home to deal with seven children. When, at the end of high school, I decided on a gap year to make up my mind about how I wanted to spend the rest of my life, my parents were severely disappointed. Instead of winning a scholarship, moving out and becoming financially independent of them, I was still at home. They insisted that I get a job, and my mom took less shifts at work to lower her stress. Now, she had to bargain with her boss to get me a replacement job. Added to the fact that I was now without an income, she had every reason to be angry.

Supper was an icily silent affair. Wren, my seven-year-old brother, tried to keep things light by making fart-jokes, but neither I nor my mother responded. The situation was even tenser when Dad staggered in, three hours late from work.

“Hi, honey,” he said wearily, kissing my mom’s head. “Why do you look so upset?”

“Don’t you start with me!” she exploded, wagging a mashed-potato filled fork at him.

He looked down at the blob of food on his shirt and wisely backed away. At that moment, the siren-like cry of Abbey shattered the silence. Grateful for the distraction, I took my plate to the sink and disappeared from the kitchen to see to her. As I picked her up out of the crib and plugged a dummy into her mouth, I could hear my parents discussing my misdeed in hushed voices. I rolled my eyes and let Abbey grab my finger. She spat out the dummy and promptly stuck my finger between her gums instead.

“You don’t mind that I don’t have a job anymore, do you?” I asked her with a sigh.

She just gurgled and looked up at me with her wide, unseeing black eyes. My finger was now saturated with baby-drool. I withdrew it and rocked her back to sleep before putting her back in the crib. By the time I left, the kitchen was unusually deserted. I glumly retreated to my room, only to be kicked out by Meg who was on the phone with a friend. Wren, Archer and Dad hijacked the TV to watch a soccer match. Out of loneliness, I joined them and hoped that working at my mom’s office wouldn’t be too bad.

***

I lay in my bed, paging through a novel. As much as I wanted to dive head-first into the story, my mind kept on distracting itself with thoughts of the day. The way I previously envisioned my life – going to university, getting some job, marrying someone and having 2.4 children – seemed so mediocre all of a sudden. I wanted to do more than just that. Before, I reserved exciting lives for characters in books. Surely reality couldn’t be that interesting? But meeting Kairo and Anna, catching a glimpse of what could only be called supernatural, put everything into a different perspective. I knew that I would no longer be able to live such a mediocre life.

Someone knocked on the door.

“You can come in now, Meg,” I said dully, wondering when my sister learnt how to knock. Instead of Meg’s face, I saw my mom.

“Oh.”

I closed the book and set it on the bedside table. My pillows propped me up.

“Hi, mom.”

She smoothed the blankets and perched on the edge of the bed, brushing back my hair.

“I phoned my boss. He said it’s okay if you come to work with me tomorrow. There’s a lot of filing to be done before the auditor comes and checks the books,” she said in a soothing tone.

“Okay...What time?”

“Seven. The same time I go in. Are you up for it?”

I knew it was mom’s way of making peace with me, of apologising. I nodded quickly, despite how little I looked forward to it.

“He does pay well. You’ll be able to save a lot.”

I nodded again.

“I never asked you when you got home...Why do you have so many bandages on your arms? How did you get hurt?”

I seethed that she only noticed them now, but was partly relieved. It had given me time to come up with a suitable excuse.

“I fell at work this morning. Into a rose-bush. Kairo patched me up.”

I knew that she wouldn’t believe that had really happened. I wasn’t even sure that I believed it myself.

“Maya, it’s not polite to refer to people as Egyptian cities,” she reprimanded. “Just because someone has an unusual name, you shouldn’t make fun of them.”

“But – “

“No buts. Now, go to sleep. I love you.”

She gave me a kiss, pulled my blankets over me and turned off the light as she left the room.

I rolled my eyes and attempted getting sleep that I knew would never come.