39 Resting

"My father was ... troubled." Issac began, pulling out an ice cream bucket as he walked around the kitchen, grabbing everything sweet he could find.

"That is one way to say it." Soren scoffed, sitting on the dining table.

"You wouldn't say that if you met him." Issac began mixing everything into the ice cream bucket, using a spoon.

"Why?"

"He was ... charismatic." He said, dumping a packet full of marshmallows into the ice cream along with chocolate syrup, strawberries, and many more. "No one can picture a man like that even lying."

"So, no one thought of him as ... strange?" Soren asked, looking at Issac's meal with disgust.

"Nope. Not one person. And I think I understand why." Issac pointed the spoon he used in the mixture at Soren. "Because he genuinely does not see himself as one either."

"Meaning?"

"Look, he is the type to get flustered easily. He does not like to take credit for anything, even if he is the one that did it and is always helping people wherever he went." He stuck the spoon into his mouth, sighing with contention.

"But what about you all?"

"Besides all that he did, like trying to remove anything that makes us human, he actually made a good father, I guess." Issac took his bucket of diabetes and walked to the living room. "Come on."

"Good father?" Soren settled down on a couch, pulling his leg up on the cushions. "What do you mean by that?"

"He was very busy but always made time for our birthdays, knew what we wanted and have it to us. He also is very protective of my sister and I. He would tuck us in bed and even read stories for us.

"If either of us are having a nightmare, he would waste no time comforting us and leave only when he felt we would be fine." Issac stuck a spoon full into his mouth and began chewing. "See, he has all the makings of an ideal father."

"But ... he did all those things to you all."

"That is the deal-breaker for most people, isn't it?" Issac chuckled, spoon hanging from his mouth. "You see, he is one that will follow his intuitions down to the last feeling.

"No matter how bad a situation is or even how 'bad' my sister or I behave, if his intuition does not feel that it is a bad thing, he would not take it as such.

"But, it would appear that me trying to take my own life is bad according to his intuition." Issac made a face, like he couldn't see how that would be a bad idea at all.

"Well, no one would want their children to take their own life." Soren reasoned.

"Agreed. But I am sure that is not the reason for his reaction," Issac said, pointing the spoon at Soren again. "Because, when I first tried to take my life, he grabbed me by my shirt collar and looked me dead in the eyes and said, 'Livestock do not get to decide if it lives or dies'."

"Oh, that is bad." Soren whistled, scrunching up his face in disgust, both at Issac's 'ice cream' and the thought of the man he talked about. "Well, he is gone now, right?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'gone'," Issac said, staring blankly at the window overlooking the garden and the metal fence.

"Well … dead? What other definition would it be?"

"Many of the time, the dead are not gone." Issac rested his head back on the couch and sighed. "Sometimes, they still follow you, even beyond the grave, in memories. For some, that would be a great thing."

"I understand," Soren said, fiddling with his fingers as the two fell into a comfortable silence. "How … how did he die anyway?"

"That old man?" Issac asked, going back to eating.

"Yeah. Did you … you know-?" He made a motion of sliding his hand across his neck.

"I didn't kill him. Unfortunately." Issac said bitterly. "He died on his own. While in the shower, he slipped and smacked his head on the edge of the elevated floor."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah. My sister and I were in our rooms, watching a movie so we didn't notice until that night." Issac shrugged nonchalantly. "Some doctors say that he died of blood loss. It was a horrifying sight."

Soren stared at Issac, he did not look like he was joking when he said that, maybe he felt some kind of emotion for that man. He is his father, after all.

"I can imagine, seeing your father with a pool of blood around him must have been disturbing." He said, attempting to be sympathetic.

"The blood was not disturbing," Issac said, looking at Soren blankly. "Why would blood be disturbing?"

"Your father dying then?"

"He should have died sooner if you asked me." Issac bit into the spoon. "But even as he died, he still managed to scar my sister and I."

"What did he do?" Soren asked, trying to picture what other maniacal thing this man would have come up with to torment his children as he died. Did the house burst into flames or something?

"Why couldn't he have covered himself up?" Issac groaned, covering his face with his hands. "That image of him will forever be burnt into my head until I die."

"Huh?"

Soren's face went from worry to surprise then to annoyance in the matter of a second and he took a pillow, throwing it at Issac who caught it with ease.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought it was something serious." Soren sighed deeply, pressing his temples.

"That is something serious. Would you like to see your father naked?"

Like a spell, as soon as Issac said that, the image appeared in front of Soren's eyes as he shouted in disgust, jumping to his feet instantly.

"Ahhhh! Why would you say that to me?!" Soren shouted, rubbing his eyes. "My eyes!"

"See? It is a traumatizing thought." Issac said, looking at him, amused.

"Shut up!" Soren pointed at Issac, shaking his head. "Why would you do that!?"

____________________

Issac merely stared at his friend before turning back to the outside world. The garden just before the gate swayed with the wind as he took in all the different colours in front of him.

"Hey, do you remember the time when I asked you to go house hunting with me?" Issac asked, ignoring his friend's cries of disgust and complaints.

"How could I forget?" Soren asked, sitting back down, reluctantly. "You were so damn picky that day. No house was good enough for you."

"I think we were searching for … about a week?"

"Twelve days, four hours, thirty-three minutes. To be exact." Soren said, leaning back on the couch while occasionally shaking his head to clear it off.

"Was it that memorable of a task?" Issac teased while the other man groaned in annoyance.

"Just thinking about it is already making me tired." He remembered the countless rooms they looked into, even checking up to the bathrooms. In his mind's eye, he saw someone in the shower and quickly shook his head to get that image out. "Why are you thinking of that suddenly?"

"Do you remember why I chose this house?"

"Of course I do." He laughed. "All the other houses were searched every nook and cranny but for this one … you didn't even look inside. You spotted it and done. It's the one. But you never told me why."

"The garden." Issac pointed to the flowers dancing in the wind outside the window. "That was the main reason why I wanted it."

"Garden?" Soren looked at where Issac was pointing at. This house is quite far from the main part of the city. There are also many empty houses around so there is this feeling of solitude.

He always thought those were one of the reasons why he chose this house, but he would never have expected Issac's reasoning to be the garden. He is always so thorough in everything he does and this just comes off as random.

"Yeah." He mumbled, going back to his ice cream and falling silent once again. "I don't understand it completely, but … it provided me with a feeling like I am coming back home."

" … from the garden?"

"Ridiculous, isn't it?" Issac asked, smiling mockingly at Soren. "But I just felt that it was right and I acted on it."

"I wouldn't say that it is ridiculous." Soren began. "But it is something that I am not used to hearing from you. Besides ... it's a little like that painting in your room."

"Subconscious decision making." Issac nodded. "Maybe the two have connections."

"Maybe." Soren paused for a second. Wait a minute, he hasn't told me anything about that thing in his body. "Iss-"

"You two are so noisy."

They turned as Zadie walked into the room from the basement door, rubbing her head lazily.

"Good morning, Zadie." Issac greeted, holding the ice cream to her. "Want some?"

"Not that abomination." She said with disgust and walked to the refrigerator. "It is good to see you alive. I take it that the rescue mission went well."

"Something like that," Issac said, staring at her intently. "Though many lives were lost."

"Isn't that always the case with us?" She asked, taking out a milk carton and began gulping the liquid down. "Soren."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Surprised, Soren made eye contact with the woman as a smile broke out on his face. "You are very welcome."

"Don't look so happy. Idiot." She mumbled, taking another gulp of the milk before turning to Issac. "So where is Haiti?"

"Room. Resting."

Soren whipped his head to Issac, eyes wide with horror as the man ignored him completely.

"Is she resting?" Zadie asked, eying Issac suspiciously after observing Soren's reaction.

"You could say that."

"What is going on, Issac?"