Ethan And Richard

ETHAN AND RICHARD

  ©2012 Dora Achieng Okeyo

  “I hate him Mom that will never change.”

  The woman lifted her head to look at the boy before setting aside the magazine she was reading. The boy sunk in the couch and sighed. She could feel his pain; she was his Mother, wasn’t she? She had been through that too-at least she could understand.

  “Ethan, what happened?”

  “He stopped me at the parking lot at the Mall.”

  “Did you stop to listen to him?”

  “To listen to what Mom? That man has lost his senses, why now?”

  “You should ask him that.”

  “I hate him and just when I think I have my peace he shows up from nowhere.”

  “Ethan, that man is your Father.”

  “That’s funny, you are really funny Mom…how can you plainly declare that he is my Father?”

  “It is true Ethan.”

  “Maybe in your world, but I do not know him.”

  “Ethan, listen to me, would you?”

  “Say something worth listening to Mom.”

  “Don’t try and talk back to me Ethan, remember who I am!”

  “Sorry Mom, I am listening.”

  “He is your Father, and the more you run away from him, the more you become like him.”

  “I am NOT like him!”

  “You are Ethan, every second that goes by you grow more like him and no matter how much I tell myself that you are a better man than him, of late I am beginning to see a worse man, my son, you are worse than him, and it is your anger that is holding you back.”

  Ethan stood from the couch and walked to his room. She called out to him but he walked on – one foot in front of the other till he got to his room and locked the door behind him. He stared at his ceiling and smiled. It was a beautiful smile at first then it turned into a scornful laughter. He was winning and he loved the feeling. The pain that thrived in his veins was so powerful he could feed off it for a lifetime. His Mom was reading the latest magazine on Architecture downstairs. The man was on the cover of the magazine. He was proud about his company, his old rich wife and his cars. He was proud of the buildings he had designed and constructed-only sick bit was he’d forgotten to mention he had a son!

  He lay on his bed if only for a moment as he contemplated why his Mom was reading that magazine. It was only noon and he wanted to go out for a drive. He recalled her saying she had some friends visiting. He hated being introduced to women who reminded him of his life in diapers! He looked at the phone buzzing on the bed and clicked. He had to make things clear with Laura. She was a good girl, maybe too good for him, but he was not a prince. He did not see himself turning into a knight in shining armor. The phone buzzed thrice then fell silent. He heard his breathing, crisp and vengeful in that moment.

  Laura was unlike the other girls he had dated on campus. In fact it was never about dating on campus, but just having fun, spending money, attending parties and smoking his lungs away! She was different. It got on his nerves that she was always there. The first time they met he thought she was going to drag him to Christian Union meeting, but she did not. Instead she dragged him all the way to a Chemical Dependency meeting. She was that kind of girl. The one who every guy wanted ten years down the line, and he couldn’t lie about that-he wanted her fifteen years later.

  She had a great body, was a looker and spoke her mind without mincing words. They were good friends. He never invited her to his parties but someone always managed to invite her. Her memories of their meeting constituted of him passes out with a can of beer in hand. She insisted that he’d often woken up to finish his drink and curse. His phone buzzed again and he picked it up.

  : What do you want?

  : Hello Ethan, can we meet at the Mall?

  : What do you want Laura?

  : I want to see you.

  : I don’t want to see you, so no thanks.

  : Okay, thanks then. Have a good afternoon.

  : Whatever.

  He switched off his phone and headed to the washroom. A quick shower and a drive out of town would help. He set aside his sketchpad on the bed before taking the much needed shower. He hated that man, and was falling in love with Laura. She was a worse stalker than the man his Mom insisted was his Father. He hated them all, the former for being a jerk and the latter an angel.

  LAURA

  She looked at her phone and smiled. The girls behind her laughed, the short one giggled as they asked what he’d said.

  “He does not want to see me.”

  “Leave him alone Laura. If he needs your help, he will come to you. Do you like him?”

  “Let’s just forget it. Ethan is a jerk!”

  “That’s what we’ve been telling you, how come you’re the only girl on campus he’s never had? That guy has a bad history, you stay away.”

  “I am away already, so enough of the jerk-what do you ladies have in mind for lunch?”

  “I want fries.”

  “I want some chicken and steamed rice.”

  “No, let’s have pizza-you know they have the bottomless Coke offer today.”

  “How about we see what we can get with the cash we have?”

  “Okay.” The girls pulled out the money they had and finally settled on fries, one pizza and the bottomless Coke that came with it. Laura had fun with her friends. They talked about shopping, fashion, music videos, parties and boys-but never about Ethan. He was a jerk, but she liked him. He was mean, but he treated her differently. He had warned her to stay away, but she stayed close. She liked being around him-there was something so wrong yet so good about that. She would have to accept that Ethan was not good enough for her. She hated that for once a guy was right when she could have been. The girls went on about their boyfriends and she listened if only to feel better about being turned down by the one guy she liked.

  RICHARD

  He walked into Nairobi Hospital in time for his check-up. The other nurses were in the room when his Doctor asked them to leave the room. He smiled at them and watched them leave before taking the seat offered to him. It was 10:00am. He had to meet Mary for lunch-and he knew that she was not pleased. It must have been Ethan again. She had confided in him that his drinking and smoking was becoming an issue. He had hoped to hear something good about his son, but nothing of the sort came through. She had raised him as best as she could. He needed a Father, and he was to blame for walking out on them. He thought of his family and friends and what he would leave behind. He would leave behind a legacy devoid of his son. He would know how to deal with Ethan. He had nothing to lose; Lord knew he only had a month to live. He looked around the room as the Doctor looked through his test results and thought of how unstructured the angles and planes were. The thought of a beautiful hospital made him shudder. Hospitals were not the place to be-they had to be ugly so patients could look forward to going back home, maybe that was what motivated people in Kenya. He had seen beautiful hospitals especially hospice centers in India and Malaysia, they were home.

  The Doctor cleared his throat to get his attention and he turned to stare at the tall skinny man who had become his ally of late.

  “How bad is it?”

  “Well, we’ll get to that in a while, but how are you doing?”

  “I am here, aren’t I?”

  “Yes you are Richard, but how do you feel? Are the migraines still there and the blackouts? What of the nausea?”

  “You talk as though I am a pregnant woman! No, they are not there.”

  “Okay, that’s good; we need to do some screening today before we verify these results.”

  “Okay, I will be back in the evening.”

  “What of now? It will take less than twenty minutes.”

  “I
have a meeting.”

  “Okay Richard, be sure to alert me when you are heading here.”

  “Thank you, and how many more days are we looking at?”

  “Richard, it’s not about the days…”

  “How many more days?”

  “You have a month and three more days give or take, but if only you’d consider surgery…”

  “I would rather die than have you cut me up, and you already know that the surgery is riskier than simply letting the pain consume me.”

  “Good day Richard.”

  “It’s not so good Doctor, but it’s better than being uncertain.”

  The Doctor watched him leave and then stroked his chin. He had never gotten through to the man. It was almost 10:30am, and he felt as though he had lived to see a century during that meeting. The man looked healthy-but his limp gave him away. His hands could not stay still- the slight tremors, short breath, and pale eyes all gave him away. As for the hair, no one could tell since his signature style was bald. He wondered how many more days he could live with that attitude. He folded the report and returned it to the cabinet and locked it. He left for the cafeteria-he was in the mood for some heavy meal. Lunch had come early.

  Richard got to the restaurant on time to find the woman waiting.

  “Hello, thanks for coming Richard, how are you doing?”

  “I am fine, and you?”

  “I am doing well, but Ethan is not and that’s why I wanted us to talk. You need to talk to him.”

  “He’s not ready to listen.”

  “You are his Father Richard, you make him listen!”

  “I am not his Father and you know that all too well, I left because I valued money over him and that is something he cannot forgive.”

  “You are hopeless Richard, just like him!”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Ethan is you and you are him-at times when am talking to him I cannot help but wonder who is talking back-him or you? Where do you people get this anger from?”

  “It’s a man thing.”

  “Well then, it is stupid! I am walking on egg shells in my own house, Richard you came after us eighteen years later. I must admit I hated seeing you then and it is still not easy seeing you-but you have no time and you had better talk some sense in the boy you messed up lest he becomes the devil himself! You created this mess now fix it before it’s too late!”

  “I am sorry, I really sorry I was never there and you do not know how much that has…”

  “Keep your apologies to yourself Richard, and go after Ethan, fix things with him, leave me out of your ‘man thing’ because I won’t stay quiet and watch my baby lose it, because his Father was too much of a coward to face him and seek his forgiveness!”

  “I will…”

  “You better find him, he’s at this address, go fix this Richard!”

  Richard watched the woman go and smiled. He had gone the same way years back and now he wondered what would have happened if he looked back. He summoned his driver and gave him the address. He had nothing to lose right?

  Ethan was sketching the pool before him as he saw the green Mercedez benz approach. He knew the car and he put his sketches away. The vehicle came to a stop before him and the man walked out. He had been here in less than two hours and the stalker appeared. He looked at him and smiled. The man did not smile but he stood still beside his car. Ethan smiled, and then let out a dry laugh before putting his hands in his pockets and reaching out for his car keys.

  “You will have to stop running Ethan and face me sometime in your life.”

  “Okay.” He proceeded to his car and put the sketches inside, then pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

  “I have a month to live so I won’t lose anything by talking to you now.”

  “Good, you should be dead by now.”

  “That is true. Look, I know I am not in any position to demand anything from you but am here to say I am sorry. I am sorry for walking out on you back then and I am even sorry for what is to come after I am gone, but I am proud of the person my brother raised. Gilbert is a good man, and he’s been the best Father to you. I am glad he was there when I wasn’t because he’s done a good job. I hope that someday, you’ll stop feeding off that anger and pain and live free like those sketches you make. I hope that when you get the chance to be a Father or to fall in love that you do not mess it up like me, that when you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror you see you and not me-you see Ethan and you live for Ethan not because of the wrong that Richard did you. Take care Ethan.”

  Ethan stood there and stared at the ground and before he could help it, the man was down on the ground beneath him taking the punches he offered. He felt his knuckles on the man’s face and the other man pulling him off. Ethan shook himself off, kicked the man one more time and walked into his car and drove off. He only stopped when he reached Laura’s house. The security guard told him that she was away. She had gone to the mall with her friends. He could not pick his phone or talk to anyone over it, so he drove home and headed for his bed. Some sleep would make things better. He was twenty four-he had everything he wanted, except for the man. He wanted that man to disappear, but somehow the more he shut his eyes the more he saw the man. The more he stayed silent the more his words played in his mind.

  Richard was rushed to the hospital by his driver. The doctor on seeing him sought details but the driver was sworn to secrecy. His wife was alerted but when she got there, he was much better. His face was slightly swollen and he couldn’t stop smiling. The Doctors wanted to know what happened but all he could say was ‘bliss.’

  “Honey, what happened to you?”

  “Ethan beat me up. It was so fast and unexpected but it feels good.”

  “Richard!”

  “I talked to him, and that’s more than I could ever ask for, so now I can simply be-I have done the right thing and look what it earned me!”

  “You will be okay, have you told his Mother?”

  “This is between the two of us. It’s between him and me; Ethan and Richard.”

  When his Mom got home she called out to him and he came to her. He sat down to dinner and finished his food without uttering a word. She asked about his day but he kept quiet. She looked at the magazine on the table and reached for it. She placed it before him and told him to read the last paragraph on Richard. He looked at her and gave it back. She opened it and handed it over to him. The man was dying of Cancer, and he was hoping to set things right before he died in a month. Ethan laughed and gave her back the magazine and then smiled. She did not utter a word, because he knew how to hurt her. He had killed her at that moment and he felt no ounce of guilt.

  He lay in bed as the doctors moved about running tests that he knew were futile. The door opened and he saw him standing there. He finally came three weeks later to see him. Richard asked the people to leave them and asked him to move closer. The boy with his hand dug in his pockets walked to the bed and smiled.

  “So this is what death looks like right?”

  “Yeah, I hear it gets better once I see the light. Thanks for coming.”

  “Don’t thank me just yet. I want my sketches back.”

  “You’ll get them when you accept my offer.”

  “What offer?”

  “To run my company.”

  “What company?”

  “Ethan and Richard.”

  “Yeah right-now that you smell death you suddenly have the right to give offers and make demands, who the hell gave you the power to do so?”

  “I did.”

  “You are arrogant Richard.”

  “Look how far it got me, and you’d better quit smoking and drinking to a stupor lest you rot away like me.”

  “I am nothing like you Richard. If there is one thing I am sure of, that’s it.”

  “I know, but you will if you do not stop blaming yourself for my departure and the awful things I did, you should stop feeding on anger before it becomes a danger to you and
everyone you love.”

  “I did not come for a lecture on philosophy.”

  “What did you come for then?”

  “I came to watch you die; Mom says you have a few hours to go.”

  “Ethan…I’m sorry.”

  “It doesn’t make things alright Richard, everyone has a price to pay for their mistakes-you have to pay for yours.”

  “I am proud of you Son.”

  The woman on the outside stood still as she watched the two talk. Ethan was facing her now, and Richard had just said something to make him stop and look back at him.

  If there was any hope then-she knew it had gone that Saturday morning that Richard walked out on them. Still, she was grateful to see the two men she loved: Ethan and Richard.

  ###

  About the Author

  Follow her on Twitter @herhar, and via blog on www.dora-jodie.blogspot.com