Flashback: 11 years ago ( Tuesday, May 15 )
" Samiel how could you drag our little Anna into I.U.I ?. You are a damn imbecile, a vile creature you are !".
My mother yelled out in anguish to my daddy.
I immediately perked upright upon hearing my name being mentioned. I had then started peeking my head out from behind my bedroom door. To hear more of whatever disagreement my parents were having. While my naive six year old self was tucked away in my pastel pink princess room, sucking on a big swirly lolly.
My mother had given it to me just right after we had arrived home from a dynamic mother-daughter day. That was filled with various fun yet time consuming activities. By the time we had pulled in the cobblestone driveway leading up to our glorious home. Our bodies were spent from complete exhaustion.
What a dynamic yet epic duo we had made on this lovely and sunny Tuesday. It was about sometime after six in the afternoon, when we were chauffeured home by our personal driver, Givanché Alessino.
He was of a tall stature about six feet when compared to that of my measly four feet and three inches. Givanché is .quite a good looking and humorous thirty nine year old Italian guy who seemed to eat bricks. Mr.Alessino was always so sturdy and had a stoic facial expression. If he kept this up, his face was going to be stucked like that forever. Well anyways he was a big muscled softy.
My focus and thoughts went wayward when the ongoing heated screaming match between my parents downstairs. It had started erupting into something much more worse than before. They were getting seriously too loud with it. Not once thinking to take it down a knotch in regards to their daughter in the house.
I had started squeezing the golden door knob extremely tight in my tiny hand with the lolly in my left one. As my eyes had started to burn as they were slowly being filled with tears. While I am scared out of my wits not even knowing what was going on with my parent.
" We need it to maintain the privileges and connections Andrea. Have you gone ravening stark mad ? ".
My father all but screamed back in what seems to be blinding rage at my mother.
Not too long after his angry response, I heard the reverberating sounds of smashed glass wares ricocheted throughout our home. This had gone on for too long, someone was going to get hurt and nothing would be solved.
This scenario wasn't an Act 1, scene 1 let's take one from a script. It had felt too real for me to keep my identity hidden from my parents anymore. Somehow I had to get their attention one way or the other. So I had let out an earth shattering scream as ran into the living room with tears and snot on my face.
My lovely lollipop had long been forgotten as I entered the screaming arena. Where the violent quarrel between both my parents had ensued. There I was screaming in blinding hysterics in between my parents for both of them to stop this nonsense.
Maybe it was in the heat of the moment with the boiling tension between them both as they stated each other down with utter hatred.
That was when they had finally realized, that their favourite small human had entered the devastating disaster zone. The entire living room was on of chaos and utter destruction. What a complete disaster the entire area was, it like a terror had passed through.
The small brightly coloured home plants that were on the window sills for decoration were overturned. While the much larger ones that were placed on the floor was split wide open and overturned on the ground, with the flowers looking as good as dead.
The television set was thrown down in the chaotic mess and it had an oblique smashed line with angry cracks right in the middle. It was just barely dangling mid-air from being held up by the cords.
The once divine crystal table that had golden embellishments on the edges, and was placed in the middle of the living room. It was utterly destroyed beyond recognition.
I could possibly go on and on about the giant mess of invaluable things being strung along. Yet how could I forget, the floor was covered with pointed crystalline shards of glass glittering on the floor like artificial diamonds.
Everything was in a state of disarray from the heaps of dirt from the plants. The stinky stench of liquor intermingled on the floor. Pray, do tell it was a sore sight for the eyes.
" Hey Todito, mommy and daddy are playing a game. How about you go up to your room and put all your favourite things in a bag. Mommy will be right up ".
She all but pleaded to me in her distinctive Jamaican accent with her hands on her slim waist. As she squatted before me from her 5'9" height of glory. Her almond shaped dark brown eyes looking at me in a pleading way to follow her instruction this one time.
My mother a beautiful lady of Jamaican descent, what an exotic sight for the sore eyes she was. She had a sun-kissed dark skin and a radiant smile that held such regal beauty. That seemed to be bestowed from the heavens above. She was the epitome of a completed enigma of Caribbean beauty.
Her melanin held an exquisite divinity to it. Her shoulder length hair had two cornrows that was decoration with a few fake crystals and flower.
" What kind of game are you guys playing?. Is it who can scream the loudest or who can smash the most things?. If it is so, then I request my slot of initiation ".
I enquired of my mom in an eager tone, with my eyes wide open and a face perceived to be that of a saint.
As I gazed innocently at my mother. She already knew how much of a trouble maker I was. I had not one innocent bone in my body. I watch as my mom took off a blue scrunchie from her hand. To put my curly hair into a neat little bun on my head.
" No one is leaving this mansion Andrea !. Anna is an inte - anyways I need her for the - ".
My father spit out angrily through gritted teeth, with a
bulging and pulsing vein in his neck, as he stared down at my mother heatedly.
My dad, now he was from Wales and had always splurged upon his impeccable taste for the finest. He was very tall about 6'3" in stature. He was of slim built and had such firm jawline that was so pronounce accompanied by a thin nose and mouth. A complete opposite from my mom.
He had mastered the art of using the eyes to communicate instead of spoken words been uttered from his lips.
Some nonsensical, machismo hierarchy in the business world to exert power and authority. He was always donned immaculately in Prada embroidery of the finest embellishments.
" No you don't need her, she's only of importance to you because it benefits your little - " .
Suddenly my mother bubbled out a strangled scream before she was aggressively interrupted. Daddy had thrown an exquisite liquor glass filled with brown liquid, quite a few inches away from her face. He then held her up by her slender neck with anything but grace. She was gasping for much needed air with her back against the wall. As she clawed at my father hands.
This was my very first time seeing my father treat my mom in such an aggressive and handsy manner. I had started pounding my tiny fists into his legs to let my mommy go. It seemed as if my hits weren't doing any damage to him. I couldn't let my mom die at the hands of my father. In nothing but pure frustration as tears stung my eyes, I hollered out my dad's name.
So while he was distracted by my interference my mom had used this to her advantage. Yet with a faint battle cry she kneed him in his no-no zone. He was soon doubled over as if the air was completely knocked out of him. It seemed as if mommy wasn't done with him yet and thwacked him a the back of his head with a flower vase for a good measure.
She then hauled my immobile state upstairs to haphazardly throw things about in few luggages for both of us in quite a hastily manner. I seemed to regain a few senses and started firing questions after questions.
" Where are we going mommy?. Why are we leaving daddy?. Mommy I - ".
I asked her impatiently, I was tired from today's events.
I watched as she snatched the credit cards, car keys and luggages in haste. All while her body was trembling and her eyes looked frazzled.
" Todito stop! ",
My mommy shouted at me in unrestrained manner of anger.
As my lips started to quiver a tell tale sign I was about to cry. Liquid frustration welled up in my eyes and gave off a stinging sensation in my eyes. Soon to make their departure down my cheeks.
" Hey mommy is so sorry. Come here Little Bug, shh...shh ".
Mom uttered to me in a solemn tone. As she pressed a loving kiss on my forehead.
Then rocked me side to side in a comforting hug in hopes of calming me down. After she had quickly wiped my tears and I had quieted down.
I observed my parents master bedroom chambers. That was pleasing to the eyes and comfortable to the body. Which was a ruby red sanctuary decked with the the finest embroidery. It was like something straight out of fantasy fairytale. The only thing in the room that was white coloured was simply the bed and its covers. That was placed in the in the centre of the divine room.
I gazed confusedly at my mom as she started creating a rukus while she looked for something. I watched as she grabbed a remote and pressed a button and the bed shifted to the right side of the room.
I was shocked as something that looked like a door on the floor where the bed once was.
When I went to get a good look at it I realized that it had a number pad to put in some code to open it. It's just like my parents phone. I watched as she entered the secret pin 5151 in the keypad.
A walkway way had suddenly unveiled itself, hurriedly my mom grabbed me and the luggages. As we walked through the faux brick like passage that was lit up with what looked like special bulbs in glass containers. All this time I had only seen it in the movies. I never knew there was a secret passage way was here in my parents bedroom.
In absolutely no time we had seen the exit, that required my mom putting in a second code. Only this time the door didn't budge and sounds started to blare out and red light to flash. My mom started working her hands faster putting in various code. Upon her final try she put in the first code in reverse and like a miracle. The door had finally slid cross and had finally opened up.
My mom and I dashed towards the garage and that was where she had sneakily found a black sleek Mercedes Benz A-Class. She hijacked the car lock and buckled me in and hastily flung the luggages in the back. Quickly making her way to the driver's side and in the knick of time she stepped on gas and sped through the gates.
I turned around one last time with my favourite oversized pink stuffed bunny. To look at the place I had once called home. A home that I had came to know and loved, and it was buried to the brim with memories I had cherished.
A faint sense of nostalgia smacked me in the face. When realization had dawned upon me that we were really leaving.
My face held disbelief as I breathed in deeply. Then gazed out at the marvellous water fountain, angel-like statuettes, the divine pool and the well decked cobbler driveway. Then there was the magnificent rose garden filled with thorns. That seemed to enclose the castle-like mansion.
That looked quite celestial on the outside and anything less than exquisite on the inside. That was when I let my first tear slipped. The atmosphere had shifted, it felt different somehow and even the stars weren't illuminating the sky.
It was a sombre night and the trees, they had stilled in an apprehensive suspense. Even the preys of the night seemed to pay their final reverence to us. As we whisked through the exit of the grand property.
I thought that tonight was going to mark the last, I would have seen of that man. That man I have called dad, never really knowing the monster that laid dormant underneath the surface.
That was ready to erupt from within, when faced with extreme vulnerability. He was an enigma enclosed in his paradigm of consecrated self-loathing.
That was the pressing issue my naive six year old self hadn't realized. That this was exactly what my mother had tried telling me numerous times.
He was undeserving of the title I had so honourably bestowed upon him to be called a... dad.
When indeed it was truly a pity I didn't know...he had despised his own.