ARAWN – PAST
“How dare you! How dare you stick your nose into things that don’t concern you.”
Her shrill scream risks perforating my eardrums, and I clench my teeth.
I hate it when people scream.
Why do people always think they can scream at me?
“They will take my baby away from me! They will take him from his mother.” Annie goes feral while she starts throwing the insides of her bag onto the table as she is still looking for something in it. “I just lost my husband, and now you made me lose my baby too!”
“He had to be hospitalized. He would have died without proper care! Annie, he is diabetic.” I try to keep my voice calm as she flips out.
I never argue with anyone, because the people who are entitled to raise their voice at me, I am not allowed to talk back at, and the ones who aren’t entitled to, stop yelling at the first blow hitting their jaw.
So, this is an entirely new situation as I try to calm down my father’s right hand’s wife in front of a little boy staring up at me with big eyes.
“Oooooh!” She screams, clasping her hands around her belly. “Look at you! What would we do without you? Superman! Ready to come in and save the situation? Thank you, my Lord.”
She gesticulates like a mad woman while she continues to shout her lungs out at me. “As if you were ever interested in any of our lives. Even the kids are just fresh meat for you to be factored into soldiers. Make them thankful, make them feel like they owe you their life so that they will be loyal to you forever.”
It’s no wonder that she thinks this way after spending her whole life with a scumbag.
And if it isn’t just how a family works.
“Annie, you have to calm down. I can handle that with the baby, but you have to get a grip! And lower your fucking voice when talking to me!”
She laughs, my blood boiling.
But I guess grief and drugs were never a good match.
“You are just like your father,” Annie snarls, insulting me with something that should mean a compliment in a normal family. “The hours I’ve spent praying that he doesn’t show his genes, and now I have to deal with you!”
She points her finger towards Danny in a punching manner as I grab her arm.
As if we could do anything for our scumbag fathers.
Or unstable mothers.
“Stop. Yelling.” I growl, leaning in. “You won’t ever have to deal with me if you get your fucking shit together!”
“And what if not, are you going to beat me? Kill me?” She pulls her arm back, nearly losing her balance. “Who tells me that you are not the one involved in that? You and your idiot lap dog.”
Nearly having to chuckle at her insulting Jensen, I wipe my lips with the back of my hand, keeping me from it.
She pops off again, and I have to put an end to it before I lose my cool.
“I’m not your fucking husband!” I finally yell, making her flinch. “Now, we have two options here. Either you calm down, and start speaking respectfully to me, and I will get your kid back, or I swear to God Annie. I will find a nice couple overseas, and they will get both of them.”
Distorting her face, she lets herself fall to the ground and starts sobbing terribly.
“Did you get me?” I ask, and she nods.
Passing a hand over my face, I take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry for your husband. But you have two kids. Get yourself together!”
Crouching down, I hand her a roll of bills which she takes silently. “If you spend all of it on your drugs, I’ll know. And you won’t like what will happen when I have to come back here.”
Her sobs intensify as I straighten my spine. I’m glad that the mess is gone, even though it still reeks of scum.
Turning my head, I see Danny still watching me with big eyes. He is clasping the chair slats as he must be still making sense of the situation. With a smile towards him and a ruffling of his hair, I’m out of the apartment.
And I never returned to put a foot inside of it.
ARAWN – PRESENT
The flashback is still playing out in my head as I step into the flower shop.
“Good Morning, Mr. Rodberg.” The elderly woman tears me out of my thoughts with a gentle smile.
“Good morning, Saman.” I say, already counting my bills as I step in front of the counter.
“Another bouquet of wildflowers, sir?”
I hum in response as I halt. “Actually, no.”
Turning in the shop, I ponder over it before I ask, “How many roses do you have in store?”
“Oh, maybe about 100 maybe?” She laughs, checking her papers.
I chuckle, my gaze still on the shelves filled with flowers. “I will be needing more than that.”
“Let me check with the shops around me, and my vendor.” She says excitedly, lifting her finger as she hurries to the back.
I laugh as I lift my eyes. “You do you.”
Tilting my head, I check out a flyer hanging on the wall behind her work counter. “Kyle? Is he missing?”
“Yeah,” she sighs sadly, as she returns to the front holding her phone. “He disappeared months ago. At first, I thought he was just taking a break. He had his problems, so he disappeared from time to time, but he always came back after one or two weeks. But he hasn’t been picking up his phone. And no one seems to have seen him at his apartment.”
My thoughts rumble through my head as she dials the next number to ask for more roses.
I take out my phone to take a picture of the flyer and send it to Dario with the task of looking into that. A strange sensation creeps up my spine as I continue to look at the flyer.
After getting Dario’s response about him taking care of it, I put my phone back.
Making a mental note to myself about keeping an eye on this, I concentrate on Saman who is still counting roses. “Will 500 do?”
I shrug, flashing her a grin. “If you get it to 1000, I’ll pay you extra.”