Rent - A - Man

Family Reunion Warning: Threats May Vary

NOAH WHITAKER 

I hated airplanes. They always made me feel queezy, hence why I was Navy, not Airforce. I take a deep breath and pray at any time now the sleeping pills would kick in. But with how tense I am alongside with how fast my heart is beating I don't think sleep will ever really come to me. Instead, I close my eyes and think about what I'm going to say to Samuel. 

Following shortly after the conversation that I had with Rajim, he claimed he was all for our little family reunion. He said he'd been looking for something nice to do for his roommate and that this was a golden opportunity. According to Rajim, Samuel had a naturally curious mind and had been wondering about his mysterious father's side of the family. Layla must've never told him about us and somehow that made me really annoyed. What wasn't there to be proud of? A respected marine Father and a Navy SEAL uncle? Sure, our parents weren't perfect. My dad died when we were little, got himself mixed into something he never should have. A whole controversy about him being a dirty cop that of course none of us believed. The whole town had their own opinions, but we didn't care. Of course, though, we didn't know how bad it'd gotten until his deep cover became public news when we had gotten that dreaded call that he was dead. 

Shortly mom followed by trying to swallow her sorrows by also swallowing as many pain killers and anti-depressants as she could while downing them with liquor. I'd been so numb to death by then that it became no surprise to me when another short year later Joshua died in Iraq. I spent only 2 short months in a foster home, then as soon as I hit eighteen I'd enlisted in the Navy. 

I wanted to make my brother proud. I wanted to save those who think they couldn't be saved, like my mom. I wanted to clean our family name and restore honor to it for dad. 

But now what could I do for Samuel? 

I'd been so caught up in the fact that I might now have a place to stay, I didn't think about the way he'd see it. See me. So many things could go wrong and I hadn't freaking thought of any of it before I hopped on this damn plane with a ticket paid by Rajim. I can't believe I'm having second thoughts. 

Just when I was thinking of stealing a parachute and making my ecape plan, the plane lands and I put one of my hearing aids in and turn it all the way up expecting the captain to say something. 

"Attention Passengers, we have safely landed in beautiful New York, New York and as I always say, welcome to the big apple and thank you for flying Jordan Airlines."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I figured out that planes weren't the things that I hated the most. 

Airport Security is what I hate the most. I swear that one lady just pulled me to the side to pat me down and it wasn't to search for weapons. 

Dangerous ones, anyways. 

Well, I guess that could be dangerous too, haha.

Once I was done getting felt up I grabbed all my things and spent more time of my precious youth searching for my things in a different kind of combat, the luggage claim. Who needed to join the army when there was a war going on right here? After elbowing many strangers and fighting an old lady for my duffel bag, I finally got all my shit together. Once I was walking towards the exit that Rajim told me to meet him at I see a relatively small Indian boy with a chin strap beard and a big sign with my name written in sharpie. I take a wild guess that it was Rajim himself. 

"I can't believe it's you! God, you look so much like him! I knew you weren't some dirty fraud, my mom was so wrong." He slaps me on the back with a goofy smile on his face and I lift a brow.