Goldfish Bowl

Chapter 17

The atmosphere around the dinning table was tense, Alisha popped a piece of chicken into her mouth, chewing silently. The dish was delicious, Yasmin had outdone herself with the jollof rice she prepared, topped with the rich vegetable soup Alisha had cooked, none of them liked to eat their jollof rice without a sauce topping it and Alisha had helped herself to a thick drizzle of it over the rice. Except, she had lost all appetite.

The dinning table was one fit for a palace, providing sitting for up to fifty people, it was well used too because Hector and Yasmin usually had guests over many times. Tonight, Alisha had made sure to sit three seats away from where they sat besides each other.

She was still mulling over Hector's words, furious at both him and the so called woman who claimed to be her mother. She wanted nothing to do with her, nothing to do with the life she left behind.

Hector coughed, startling her from her thoughts. An instinctive 'bless you' left her lips before she could stop it and she caught the small smile that Yasmin tried to hide by taking a sip of her water.

No matter how much she tried, she could never really shut them out of her life even though she had been determined to keep the details of why she had left Festus and his wife vague, she knew they were aware that something had happened, they just did not want to pressure her.

"Are you going to ignore us all night?" Hector asked, abandoning all efforts at pretending to eat. Alisha noticed that he had barely touched his meal and found herself worried.

Her father had never hid his battle with depression as a result of the accident that left him paraplegic but Alisha knew well that the anniversary of that accident was in about a week's time, during this period he tended to space out and brood, usually, they left him to himself, only stepping in to remind him that they were there for him. It was impossible to love depression out of someone, Alisha knew that better than anyone, she had learnt it the hard way and still hated herself for it.

Hector would talk, when and if he wanted to, Yasmin refused to pressure him and neither did Alisha.

"I'm not ignoring you, I'm just mad." She corrected, talking through a spoonful of rice, just because she knew it would annoy Yasmin. The Italian woman was quick to send a glare her way.

She pushed down the rice with a long gulp of water.

"I'm tired of that woman bothering me," She snapped. "And I don't know what the hell she wants."

"I take it that means you aren't attending your late father's funeral?" Hector asked hesitantly, wincing at the word father.

Alisha inhaled a sharp breath.

"My father is alive." She said quietly, looking Hector in the eye as she did so.

Hector in turn toyed with the stem of his half full champagne glass, he didn't take alcohol so she knew it was most likely fruit wine.

"I don't know what things you endured while you were with him, and I don't want to make you tell me because I believe you are grown up enough to handle whatever it is that life throws at you, and because I trust your intuition. That man, no matter how horrible he was to you, was still somewhat of a father to you, even if it was for one day." Hector said, he let the glass settle on the table quietly, the lights of the chandeliers flickering in his brown eyes. "If you are avoiding the funeral because you want to be petty, and perhaps deny him of that last wish, then I think you are going about it the wrong way."

When Alisha parted her lips to argue because his words sliced deep into her chest, because what he said was nothing more than the truth, Hector raised up a hand, indicating that he was not done speaking yet.