Isaiah turned around to Carlos, giving him an agitated look.
"Scuse me?"
"Look, we been at it for days and these leads are gettin' us nowhere!" Carlos scowled. "I doubt that the kids is even here!"
"What do you mean you doubt that the kids are here?" Noah snarled, jumping into the conversation. "You heard what those men said before we killed them!"
"And how the hell do you know if they were tellin' the truth?" Carlos snarled back at him. "Have you not been in Schaefer before?"
"So what you tellin' me to do?" Isaiah growled. "Give up?"
"The kids could still be dead and we could be lookin' for nothin'!" Carlos snapped. "You know how them niggas in Schaefer are when it come to confessin' and killin' kids! They never admit to it!"
"I heard Kayson and Lily on the fucking phone!"
"That could've been anyone! Anything!" Carlos scowled. "They could've played a previously recorded tape to throw you off! You ain't thinkin', Isaiah!"
Carlos shook his head, leaning back on the couch and shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, but I ain't lookin' no more." Carlos said, shaking his head. "I'm bookin' my flight back to Cali, tomorrow."
Isaiah glanced at all of us, watching us not move. He tucked in his lip, quickly placing his hand out and smacking his leg.
"So, that's how all y'all felt too, huh?" Isaiah growled.
None of us said anything, but we agreed. And I could tell through Isaiah's face that he knew that we agreed as well. Isaiah clenched his jaw, grabbing the stack of flyers and heading out of the door.
"Fuck y'all. ALL y'all some sell out muhfucka's! Especially you Asha considerin' the fact that yo' damn daughter is out there, too!" Isaiah scowled as he barged out of the hotel. "I'll go look for 'em myself!"
"And I'm comin' with you, Isaiah." Noah growled, shaking his head and walking out. "Tsssss."
Damn. I felt bad. However, I was honestly on Carlos's side. By the leads we were getting, I honestly didn't think that the kids were alive anymore. And being that Carlos was one of the the most experienced OG's in Schaefer, I was understanding everything he was saying.
But as for Kayson, he was living the 5 year old life.
For the whole week, interviewers were pouring in. He beat a the top track record in his city, so people were trying to interview him from left to right. But with Abel's schedule, he wasn't worried about the interviews. In fact, he turned all of them down. He was only worried about doing one thing and one thing only.
"Show me how to flip and cock your revolver." Abel nodded as he sat beside him on the large farmland.
In one motion, Kayson flipped the gun between his fingers and cocked it off safety. This was something else that Abel taught him. On top of the gates of the ranch, sat 5 empty cans of beans that Abel sat out.
"Now I want you to shoot each and every can off of the ranch." Abel demanded in a low tone. "If you miss one, you're doing drills. You should be able to do it well by now."
Kayson closed one of his eyes and lifted the gun, firing and hitting each and every can within a 5 second time span. As all of them fell off, Abel nodded his head and smiled down at him.
"Excellent. Tomorrow, we're going to practice targets." Abel said. "Now go inside and eat breakfast so you can prepare to plant some more tomatoes."
Kayson wiped the sweat off of his forehead, jogging back into the house. When he stepped inside, he saw Lily watching tv, folding the clothes, and eating her eggs and bacon. As Kayson stepped into the kitchen to grab his plate, he saw the red bow that he placed on Porkie to recognize him sitting next to the pan.
And that only meant one thing.
"OH MY GAD!" Kayson wailed, covering his mouth as Abel stepped inside of the house. "You cooked Porkie!?"
"Kayson, I told you not to get close to any of the animals outside." Abel growled.
"You cooked my favite pig!" Kayson yelled at him as tears flared out of his eyes.
In tears, Kayson sprinted upstairs and slammed his door shut. Kayson was close to Porkie and it was his favorite pig on the farm, and Abel was feeding him to Lily and Kayson. Lily chomped on her piece of bacon, glancing upstairs from the tv room and looking at Abel.
"Kaysin was cwying." Lily said in a low tone. "Wats wong wit hem?"
"Kayson is just learning life lessons right now and he isn't able to handle it at the moment." Abel groaned, sitting on the couch. "Someday, he'll thank me for all that i'm putting him through. And so will you."
"Y?"
Abel sighed again, leaning farther back into his couch.
"When you and the baby become teenaged girls, i'm going to pick the men you marry and make sure that he's the right husband for you." Abel nodded. "This is why i'm making you do dishes, clean your clothes, take care of the baby, and all of that good stuff so that you'll be a good woman and serve your husband like women were put on this earth to do."
"I'm gunna git a husbind sumday?" Lily gasped in shock. "Weally?"
"Yep."
"Mk."
Lily went back to watching cartoons, eating the remains of Porkie that was left. She didn't understand much of what was going on, but Abel was going to make her understand in the future just like he did with Kayson.
As for us, we didn't see Isaiah or Noah for the rest of the day. When they returned at night, they were empty handed as we were expecting. When Noah walked in by the front, he saw Asha and Q sleeping on the front couch. As she lay asleep clutched on the side of his arms, Noah couldn't help but to be jealous. He sighed again, tapping Asha on her shoulders.
"Hm?" Asha sniffed, lifting up out of her sleep.
"Let me talk to you really quick, Ash." Noah whispered.
"It's too late for this shit, Noah."
"Just for 2 seconds." Noah plead again. "I swear it won't be long."
Asha eased out of Q's grip, following Noah into the back room. When she walked in the back, she watched Noah slip off his jacket and cover up his face. He shook his head, running his fingers through his hair.
"Listen Ash, I've learned my lesson, alright? I need you. I need your comfort, and I need your company after losing our daughter. I just wanted to tell you that no matter how much I may bark or yell at you, I care a lot about you." Noah plead. "You're a very special woman, Asha."
Asha gave him a blank look, folding her arms.
"Where are you trying to get at, Noah?" Asha groaned.
"Just take me back as your man, Ash."
"And since when did you start calling me Ash?" Asha growled. "That's something that Q always calls me, but is completely new for you."
"Asha, what do you say to my question?" Noah groaned.
Asha shook her head, keeping her arms folded.
"The answer is still no, Noah." Asha sighed. "I'm not doing this shit anymore."
"Asha how many fucking times do I have to apologize!?" Noah barked, jumping up. "I said sorry!"
"Yeah and then what am I supposed to do? Take you back and take your bullshit again?" Asha scowled. "I'm not doing it anymore so stop asking me, Noah! It's over!"
Noah gave her a blank look, turning to the side and placing his tongue on the side of his mouth.
"So where are you gonna stay?" Noah asked. "Because you're not staying with me if we aren't going to be in a relationship."
Asha shook her head at him, smiling afterwards.
"Q already has that taken care of for me." Asha smiled. "Unlike you, me and Q don't have to be in a relationship in order for me to have a home."
Asha grilled him, shaking her head again as she stepped out of the room.
"Good luck, Noah."
When Asha stepped out and prepared to go back to sleep, she saw Isaiah sitting on the balcony outside. He wasn't making any sort of movement. He just sat down on his chair, gazing out at the city lights. Asha stepped out onto the balcony, giving him a blank look.
"Hey Isaiah." Asha mumbled.
Isaiah turned to her, then glanced back out at the heights.
"Hey."
Asha sat down next to him, glancing over at him.
"What's up?"
"Nothing just.......everything." Isaiah sighed. "I can't get my life right now."
Isaiah clenched his fingers together in a large fist, placing it by his mouth and keeping his eyes out at the city.
"I'm starting to think that Carlos is right. All the sightings me and Noah went to weren't even close to being our kids." Isaiah sighed. "None of them."
Asha stared out at the city, coming to one realization.
"Isaiah, our kids are no longer with us."
Asha laughed a little, glancing down.
"On the outside, it seems like I'm not even bothered by Lily's death. In reality, she's all I think about. There's not a day that goes by where I don't think about her constantly chanting 'Mommy, mommy, mommy' in my ear." Asha smiled, glancing down at her twiddling fingers. "It's those type of things you take for granted until you realize that you can't hear it anymore."
"I just......I thought that I heard my son and Lily talking on the phone.." Isaiah mumbled.
Asha giggled a little, looking out at the city again.
"Almost 2 weeks ago, Q called me to check up on me to see if I was alright. I even thought that he was Lily when I first picked up, that's how much she's on my mind."
Asha grabbed Isaiah's hand, clutching onto it.
"It may have just been your mind messing with you, Isaiah. You may have been hearing Kays in your head because you miss him that much."
Tears formed in Asha's eyes as she placed the back of her hand under her nose, closing her eyes.
"There's not a day that goes by, where I don't think about my baby." Asha wailed lowly as tears streamed out of her eyes. "I would do anything, including going back into prostitution, to see my baby girl again. I miss Lily so much."
Isaiah looked up at Asha and hugged her as they held onto each other, crying on one another's shoulders.
"Even though they're gone, Isaiah, they wouldn't want us here crying and grieving like this. They'd want us to continue with our lives and make the best out of it as we can." Asha sniffed.
She leaned back, wiping the tears off of Isaiah's cheeks with her thumbs.
"And as much as we want to think that they're here, they aren't." Asha sniffed, cracking a small smile and looking Isaiah in his eyes. "It's time for us to go back home to Cali, Isaiah. We have to go back home and continue with our everyday lives, as hard as it is. You have a fiancé at home that cares about you. Okay?"
Isaiah didn't want to do this, but he had no choice. His kids were "dead", and as bad as he wanted to be in denial about it, he had to smell the roses. He tucked in his lips, nodding his head.
"Okay." Isaiah sniffed.
"I'll go tell Carlos to book our flights for tomorrow night." Asha sighed, getting up and walking back into the hotel room.
And by tomorrow, we all were packing.
All of us decided to sleep for a majority of the morning to catch up on the rest that we've missed for the last week and a half. When we got up, Carlos and Stacey decided to make us all homemade tacos for lunch. All of us ate at the table together and had some small talk for comfort. All of us, accept for Noah. I honestly thought that he was embarrassed about the shit with Asha, but I understand why she left. I'd hate for someone to treat my mother like he treated her, so I didn't blame her for it at all.
When the skies turned black, we were headed to the airport.
This time since Carlos and Noah had on disguises when they left Cali, they didn't have to do anything but board a regular flight back to the US. The only thing that they had to do was sneak the large bags of guns into the large first class luggage, which they did by sneaking onto the large airport runway before boarding. When we got onto our plane, I watched Isaiah as he glanced out at the window. His expression said it all. I could tell that he didn't want to leave, but this is what we had to do. We couldn't stay in Saudi Arabia forever.
"Hey man, it's going to be alright." I said to Isaiah, trying to comfort him as I rubbed his shoulder. "You got us if you need ANY type of support."
Isaiah looked at me, then looked back out of the window.
"Thanks Josh." Isaiah nodded. "I appreciate it."
Carlos leaned forward, glancing at Isaiah through the space on the side of his seat.
"Aye 'Saiah, you mad at me man?" Carlos asked.
Isaiah shook his head, not giving him any eye contact.
"You was right." Isaiah sighed. "I just need to face the fact that my kids ain't no longer wit' me, no more. That's all."
"'Saiah, you need anything, you got us." Carlos nodded. "We here witchu through anything."
"And me too, bro." Noah nodded, lifting up in his seat. "I'm here for you."
Isaiah looked up at Noah, shaking his head.
"Bring it in, Noah." Isaiah groaned, cracking a small smile.
Noah got out of his seat and leaned forward, kissing Isaiah on the lips. He laughed a little and sat down as the pilot announced the flight hours.
"We're going to be heading to California from Saudi Arabia, which is an estimated 17 hour and 3 minute flight." The pilot cheered. "I'm Brandy and I'll be your pilot today! As soon as we take off, I'll have my lovely ladies serve you a nice dinner and a drink to prepare you for a nice and long sleep."
Just like that, we were off. We were off to move on with our lives, taking in the fact that the kids were murdered and that we would never see them again.
But in reality, we were leaving the kids behind, just as Isaiah thought. What appeared on the tv in the airport when we left.
"A 5 year old boy named Kayson McCay passed the olympic record in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia!" The woman smiled as Kayson's video of him cheering for joy at the race. "He beat 4 expert racers with 1 second to go, blowing his competitors out of the water!"