Noisy Colours

Chapter 4: Gone

"So things got finally better for everyone, it's very unfortunate that that's not the end of the story though." Their free time was already finished by now, and Lana's daughter knew that was the last piece of the story that she would for that day, maybe for this couple of days, but she certainly wanted to hear much more about what happened afterward.

"Oh, it is just the start." Lana got up from the couch and started to get all the wrappers that were left after the eaten snacks, together with the cups that now were long empty. "Now I gotta tell ya what was the final blow that caused Naima's condition." She said as if that blow was a secret move from a video game, rather than another tragic event that happened to the poor child version of the character that at that moment was already called "Auntie Naima".

"But, it sounds like you guys were very close to each other."

"Well, yeah, she was like a real sister to me. The only person in my family that I considered normal, actually. Because you well know how all your folks from my side are."

It was not the first story that Lana has told her children about some very interesting events that she had to experience because of her family members. Such interesting events that Lana's current husband could not bear being in one room with even one of them for too long.

"Adventurous."Lana's daughter loved her old family members from her mother's side, in this case, she considered them her own family in the right way.

"Exactly, but in the negative aspect of that. But even so, I am stuck with them for the rest of my life. Because remember, your family is the only thing that's going to stay with you till the end of the time. Not your best friends from high school or other people like that. No, it's always going to be only the family." After finishing that affirmation, she finally left the room and went to put all the things that she was holding in her hands away, leaving her daughter to think through each word that she had just said.

The daughter's face put everything on paper, she was overthinking the words that she just heard come out of her mother's mouth. She was asking herself some questions about the accuracy of that statement in her case. Is it always only the family? No matter what? Well, if it is, she's sure that she's going to become crazy with hers. "At least I have mom." she thought as a conclusion.

✺

One day, my mother had to pick me and Naima up from school and accompany my cousin all the way to her home, making sure that she returned to her house safely, since the boulevard where the building of their house was, was surrounded by auto ways from all the sides.

While we were walking peacefully, we all noticed someone running towards us, wearing a long, dark purple robe. We all stopped the movement of our legs and stood still, observing the arriving character and wondering about who could that be and what could have brought that someone into a horrible to look at condition like that.

"MOM!" Naima shouted, making both me and my mother do a little jump from how sudden and loud that scream was.

It took me a moment to process what was the reason behind why she would frighten us like that. She was right, her mother, my Aunt Siyana, was running straight in our direction, just with her house robe and sandals on, which for sure were not the cheap ones. Naima dropped her school bag on the ground and ran into her mother's open wide hands, which caught her as soon as the crazy woman crossed the end of the crosswalk. Now the view was clear for us, and we could see how Siyana's makeup was running down her cheeks, mixed with the salty tears that were caused by that look on her face, so desperate and anguished. I could see that look very clearly since she was looking straight at my mother, not at her poor daughter that was sobbing too now, right in her arms, but at my mother.

I turned my gaze to my right, to see what her reaction was in response. And all I saw was my mother returning the exact same look to her sister, with her hands down, wandering from one side to the other. I could hear her breath becoming heavier and heavier with each time her chest rose and went down back again.

I suddenly realized how miserable the situation is. An awfully weird and fast shiver went down my spine, making me want to be surrounded by a loved one's arms too. But just when I wanted to make at least a little bit of movement and wake my mother up from her shock, auntie Siyana did it instead. She stood up from the ground, let go of Naima for her own, and jumped right on her sister, as if trying to break her, just to feel the warmth of her skin comforting her. But she did not receive any physical response until she didn't whisper something into another one's ear using her last breaths. That's when my mother Iskra hugged her back and straightened her arms to make sure that my aunt would not escape anywhere from her.

Now that Naima was not comforted by anyone anymore, she had to at least hear some kind words. That's when her mind started to speak for itself:

"Mom, what's going on?! Please, mom! Why are you like this right now?! What is-"

"Naima!" She was suddenly stopped by my mother, who looked as if she got over the shock now, and was trying to put everything in the right places. Naima was waiting for something else, with her tears still running down her cheeks, but in some way she looked more relaxed now, put back into her own mind. My mother let out a long sigh before speaking up again.

"Deian is gone. He's.... not coming back to us."

"Gone like dad is?" That was the question that put everyone in a stuttered state. Siyana calmed down a little bit and looked over at me and her daughter, my mother's face became sharper, and Naima...her eyes looked deep into the truth as if she would be ready to transform into something way bigger and more powerful, in the scariest way. I have never seen her like this. All that I could do was stare at each of the people present in the scene and observe the outcome of each action made by them.

My mother opened her mouth, to start off talking about things that she would never want to say. But she never did. She was stopped by my Aunt Siyana who pushed herself out of the surrounding arms of comfort and was getting morally ready to explain herself.

"I received a call. On the other side, there was a man, with a really serious voice. He claimed to be some kind of...investigator, that's working on multiple cases of a mafia agency. He said that, recently, there has been another one, with Deian. He found out that he's been borrowing some money from this mafia, but never gave anything back to them. So they decided to use the "serious manners" and blew up Deian's car yesterday morning. And now they are asking for someone to still give all the money back. He said that he knew that I was the closest person to him, that's why they're asking for me to be the one to pay. But... I cannot- I don't have-" She could not talk anymore, the transparent, smooth glass tears started to cross the pathways of her cheeks again. She tried to cover herself with her palms, out of the disgusting feeling about all of that. All of this.

My mother immediately ran to hug her once again and try to calm her down. The urge to have some comfort on my side too made itself present again, which caused me to now get a little warmth of my mother's physical presence next to me, even if she was already busy giving some of it to someone else. I hugged her waist since that was the maximum that my height permitted me to do, and fortunately felt her hand patting my back softly, and I knew that she wanted to let me know that I was not alone, she was there. It certainly wasn't something that she usually would do, most of my memories tell me that she was colder. But what was important now is the fact that we were there, all together, except Naima. Naima was screaming, shouting, I'm not sure what exactly, and beating on her mother's back with her fists. At some point, she just turned around and kicked the bag that she earlier put on the ground to get rid of the weight, which she now used as a way of expressing herself. My very last memory of that moment was Naima that just shouted very loudly into the air.