Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 28

4 years ago

Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 28

He shivered with regret as soon as he pulled the trigger and closed his eyes, awaiting blood to spatter all over his face and when it didn’t, he opened his eyes and was actually relieved to see the client standing right before him, unscathed. The gun had blanks.

Applause broke out behind him and when he turned, Amos saw Lily’s silhouette approach them.

“You’ve passed the test,” she said with simplicity.

“The test?” Amos was baffled.
“Yeah, bruv,” the so called client wrapped a hand around his shoulders. “Lily and I were just testing you..see if you’ve got balls for the kind of life we lead.”

“You guys wanted to see if I’ve got balls by making me pull the trigger? For one second I actually thought I’d committed murder, you know.”

Lily retorted, “But you haven’t so cheer up.”

Amos was furious but couldn’t vent out his anger on anyone. They’d played him and expected him to be cool with it? These people were sick, of this he was certain. What he wasn’t certain of was how he was going to get himself out of the hot mess he’d gotten himself into by associating with a bunch of psychos.

Lily urged him to get into the Jeep which he did and they sat together in the backseat while the client whose name turned out to be Clyde, if that was his real name at all, took the wheel.

“We’ll go celebrate your initiation into the gang, just you and me,” Lily told Amos, eyeing him seductively.

Amos merely nodded in response. He was shaken by him pulling the trigger a couple minutes back. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from wondering what would have happened had the gun been loaded.
When they got to the hotel where Amos and Lily were dropped off by Clyde, they booked a room and Lily ordered the hotel’s finest wine. She opened the bottle as soon as it was delivered to their room. She poured the wine into two wine glasses and handed one to Amos who was standing by the window looking at the starry sky.

“Beautiful view, ain’t it?”
He murmured in agreement.
“Drink,” Lily urged him and he drank. “I know how you’re feeling,” she finally said after a few minutes of silence.

Amos turned to face her. “Do you?”
“Trust me, I do. You’re wondering what would have happened had that gun been loaded. Well, all I’ll tell you is you don’t have to worry because neither of us enjoy this kind of life. We’re all just victims of circumstances and in as much as we’re messed up, we have to learn to love ourselves first..maybe then the world can love us too. We do what we do because we’ve got no choice.”

He had had a choice. Had he worked harder in school years back, maybe he’d have been someone better in life today. He recalled his R.E teacher telling him he’d become a beggar which was no better than becoming a criminal if you ask him.

“Stop beating yourself over matters you can do nothing about,” Lily said, wrapping her arms around Amos’ waist.
Amos sighed and asked her a question he’d been wanting to ask all night long though it was almost dawn now. “Have you ever murdered anyone?”
“Do you really wanna know the answer to that question?”

He found himself shaking his head. “Not anymore.” he’d gotten his answer already.
They looked deep into each other’s eyes and knew they’d fallen in love. Yes, love can happen that fast. They locked lips and soon clothes were flying all over the place and before they knew it, they were having crazy sex on the floor, beside the comfy bed.
It was past 11 A.M when Amos awoke and not wanting to wake Lily who was sleeping like a baby, he left a note saying he was going home to freshen up.

Amos went straight to his room after arriving home and threw himself on the bed. He couldn’t get Lily out of his head. He was still thinking about her when there came a knock on the door. He opened it.
“What’s with the piercing?” Alice almost gasped.

“I’m a grown a-s man,” Amos was curt. “How may I help you, ma’am?”
“Dad and mum wanna talk to us in the living room.”

“What about?”
“I don’t know, Amos.”
“Your father and I are getting divorced,” Juliet told her children once they were seated in the living room.

Alice and Amos were both shocked but it was Alice who asked, “Why?”
Donald opened his mouth and was on the brink of saying something when Juliet blurted out, “Because I’m pregnant and your father isn’t the father of the baby am carrying.”

“Wow,” uttered a flabbergasted Alice. “I don’t oppose. I’d definitely divorce you if I was Dad.”

“Alice, have manners,” Donald scolded.
Amos loved his mother with all his heart but was disappointed and disgusted by what she’d just told them so he said, “Alice is just saying the truth, Dad.”

☆☆☆

Once the divorce was finalised, Juliet left the house she’d spent almost two decades and a half in. With no place to go, all she did was wander around with her bags. She had money to lodge at some motel for a few weeks but what would she do once she ran out of it? A feeling of deja vu swept through her as she wandered with her bags, this time headed to a clinic. She’d called Chris several times and his line had been unreachable all the times she’d called so she had called Chanda who had been baffled to hear Juliet asking about her brother.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Juliet had said in assurance. “There’s just something I wanna tell him.”

“He’s not in the country and isn’t coming back any time soon so if it’s really urgent, I reckon you tell me what you’d like to tell him. I’ll pass the message to him.”
“I think it’s fine. Thanks,” she had hang up and had decided to terminate the pregnancy.

Her phone rang as she neared the clinic.

“Yes, Amos?”
“Where are you?”
“By the clinic, why?”
“Don’t do anything dumb,” said Amos sternly and asked she give him the name of the clinic which she did. “Am coming to pick you up.”

Amos picked Juliet up and took her to a two- bedroomed house he’d just rented.
“You and I will be staying here together henceforth.” Juliet scanned the empty house. “Where did you get the money to rent such a place?”

“Quit asking questions and know that I’ll never desert you like Alice and Dad have done. You’re my mother and have done so much for me thus it’s my duty and turn to repay you for your hard work. And oh, you ain’t killing that little sibling of mine growing inside you.”

“No am not,” tears began to flow and she hugged Amos. She then allowed herself to completely break down and Amos let her cry on his shoulder while rubbing her back soothingly.

The divorce had taken a toll on Donald and he took to the bottle. For a full month, Alice watched her father find solace in alcohol and she tried talking him out of it. Telling him not to ruin his life because the person he was trying to do it for wasn’t worth it in the first place anyway.

“You have me, Dad,” she assured him. “Now focus on your work and forget about mum. And please quit blaming yourself for how your marriage turned out because none of this was your fault. It’s all on mum, you hear? It’s all on her!”

Her words went in vain as Donald continued to heavily drink. Unable to take his behaviour no more, Alice went in seek of Lubesha and when she finally found his place, hugged him as soon as he opened the door.

“Is everything okay, Alice?”
“Nothing’s okay,” she cried. “Things have fallen apart, Lubesha.”

Lubesha ushered her into his house and offered her a glass of juice.

“What’s going on?” he asked, seating beside her.

Alice wiped her tears and complimented his house first. And then she said, “Do you know mum and dad got divorced almost two months ago?”

“No,” the news came as a shock to him. He had been too engrossed in his work to know what was going on in his relative’s lives. “Why?”

Alice told him why and added, “Am here because of Dad though. Lubesha, if Dad carries on with his heavy drinking, am afraid the worst will happen,” she took a sip of the juice. “Since me talking to him hasn’t helped one bit, I was hoping he’d listen to you. Please come talk some sense into him.”
“Of course,” Lubesha agreed.

“What did you tell him?” Alice asked Lubesha a week later as they left the hospital premises where Donald was talking to a psychologist.

“I simply stated the facts of life to him, focusing on you. You still need him.”
“Thanks,” Alice said with honesty. “It worked.”

“It sure did.”

As they stood by the roadside awaiting a taxi, guilt gripped Alice. The fact that she’d gotten him thrown out of their house years back still haunted her but she’d learnt to live with the guilt. Somehow convincing herself that she’d done Lubesha more good than harm lessened the guilt. Just take a good luck at how he was doing well in life, maybe that wouldn’t have been possible had he not been thrown out of the house in the first place.

☆☆☆

There was blood on the floor, the dead body lay in a pool of blood. “I didn’t mean to do it..I didn’t,” repeated Amos for the tenth time. He was standing over the body, the murder weapon in his hand. He was scared to death as he looked at Lily who stood beside him, “Am going to jail, aren’t I?”