The Curse of Thelonious [✓]

twenty four

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

The following day, Atlas returned home much later than Lera. He had gotten a detention from his English teacher for refusing to present his work out loud to the class – something Mr Thompson should have been expecting. Just because Atlas had managed to work up the nerve to talk in front of Lera didn’t mean he was content speaking in front of anyone else. Manning’s rage had taught him to be consistently silent over the many years.

When he arrived at Lera’s house, an angry scowl on his face, he found her looking at Colette’s photo frame they had found from his house.

She jumped when he walked in, her eyes widening in something between surprise and guilt. “Sorry,” she murmured, her golden cheeks tinged with crimson. “I was just curious.”

Atlas didn’t answer. He felt uncomfortable looking at his deceased mother’s property but at the same time, he couldn’t deny his interest also. Grabbing hold of a pair of grey jeans and an old navy shirt with buttons, he went into her bathroom to change out of his school uniform.

Leaning his forehead against the cool mirror, Atlas sighed.

The day at school had felt longer than ever, his lessons dragging on. Students were tiptoeing around him, gossip rising through the corridors but that wasn’t the worst of it. The previous day when Lera had taken his hand and dragged him towards Jubaida, there were loitering students who had seen.

Lera was oblivious to it but he had heard the rumours sweeping the student body about the two of them. He couldn’t decide if it amused or infuriated him but either way, he wasn’t pleased. Ian and Owen, the two most popular boys in school, had been threatening him all day with menacing looks and he knew it was only a matter of time before they cracked under the pressure and attacked him. He didn’t mind that so much – he could handle their punches and kicks – but he didn’t want Lera to get caught up in a fight because of him.

Piling up his somewhat threadbare uniform in his arms, he put it away and joined Lera. She handed him the photo frame carefully and he lifted it close to analyse the image.

It was a family photo; that much was apparent. A much younger, teenage Colette was beaming up at the camera, her bother laughing with his arms around her small frame. Lane’s hair was much longer in the photo and his face rounder but he didn’t look too much different. On either side of them were two people whom Atlas assumed were their parents.

His grandparents.

His grandmother looked haughty, her head raised high and his grandfather had cold eyes and a stern mouth. He recalled the way his uncle Lane had described them and involuntarily shivered. Beside his grandmother was a pretty East Asian woman in a suit, her long dark hair pin straight and her eyes twinkling. It wasn’t until Atlas noticed the boy that her arm was around, that he put the pieces together.

Kelvin and his mother. His father and his grandmother.

A much younger Kelvin stood there, his face tilted slightly as he gazed at Colette, a genuine smile on his face. For Atlas it was almost like he was looking in a mirror; they looked so alike. He could see the subtle differences in their features, especially the few traces he had received from his mother but the majority was the same. There was no doubt about it – he was definitely Kelvin Zhong’s son.

Atlas was so caught up in staring at the picture of his unknown family with such longing that he failed to notice the most important part of the image until Lera pointed it out.

Her finger against it, he gasped in understanding. His mother was wearing the tiara in the picture, perfectly matching the glittering silver coloured ball gown she also had on.