The Hard Knock Life

Part 11

I didn't go to school the next day. Or for the next couple of weeks; I didn't care anymore. I turned off my phone and shut everyone - except the twins - out. 

The night he died, I bandaged his head to keep the blood from running and we carried his body to his room. We needed to plan a funeral fast before he started to smell. I couldn't stop crying; in fact, I woke up in front of his room door the next morning because I had been sitting there all night. I ignored my parents when they told me to shut up and go to bed.

"YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!" Was all I said in response to them.

They killed my brother and I hated them for that. What I should have done was call the police on my father, but I knew that would only make my mother worse on us - the remainder of her children. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around how someone could kill their own child and not feel a single ounce of guilt or remorse. That made me hate them more.

Just then, Asia came and sat beside me in silence before saying, "we got the coffin." Then she broke down in tears. I wiped a tear from my face as my lip quivered.

"Did we call everyone?" I asked, my voice low.

"Mhmm, everything is set...."

We were both quiet for a while.

"I'm not ready to bury him." She said, shaking her head in tears again. "I can't believe we have to bury him!"

"Me neither, but it's going to start smelling if we don't move him." I said.

"It was so stupid! Just a stupid little fight and he just shot him. Why did he have to shoot him?! Why, why, why.....whyyyy?!! I hate them. I hate them so much! I wish they would just disappear. I wish they were never my parents."

That made me think about my runaway plan. It now seemed easier to get away considering we all didn't like being in the same house as our parents. I put it in my mind as a reminder to contact Celia again about my siblings.

Just then, I saw August come out of our parents' room holding a sheet of paper.

"What's that, August?" I asked, drawing Asia's attention.

"Umm..." he peered at the paper before continuing. "It's a will."

"Who's will?" I asked.

"Dad's, from 1995. Before any of us were born."

"Who would leave their will out like that?" I asked.

"He didn't, I was snooping in their room. Got down and dirty in their drawers and came upon this. Just because." He shrugged.

"Come here, what does it say?" Asia said.

He sat in front of us and crossed his legs. "My house I leave to the bank. My assets I leave to my first son." He paused and looked up at us.

"It goes to you now." Asia said with attitude.

"Keep reading." I said.

"My money I leave to all my future children. If I only have one, he or she gets it all. If two, fifty-fifty. If three, one third each, and so on. My car I leave my wife." He stopped reading after that.

"What's next?" I asked.

"That's it." He said.

I realized, when he had gotten closer, that there was another sheet under it.

"What's that under it?" I said.

He lifted up the page and scanned what was on it.
"It's mom's."