The Accountability

Oriel and Collin were alone in the ripening night and a deserted road was all that surrounded them. In reality, both of them were frightened but Collin looked at the puerile face of Oriel and realized that he couldn't afford to let his fear show as he was trying to protect her.

"Daddy!" Oriel cried for her father, squinting her eyes to shed tears.

She was hurt from rolling on the rough road surface and had blood oozing out from the fresh wound. "Don't cry! I will take you to your dad."

She stopped crying on hearing Collin's voice and looked at him with her round eyes. "Where is the handsome boy who was sitting beside me?" She asked in her chipmunk voice.

"I am him!... why?" He was relieved because she was quiet now.

But suddenly, Oriel began to cry again. "You're not handsome!" she sounded even sadder this time.

"You're so mean! I am leaving you alone if you don't listen to me," he tried to shush her.

She went quiet again before suddenly raising her voice, "You can't leave me, I heard you promise my dad."

"But you will have to listen to me and stop crying... okay?" He sounded like an adult despite being the same age as hers.

She wiped her tears off and consented to obey him. Collin saw her injured knee and crouched for her to get on his back. He struggled and grunted when carrying her at one moment but it got easier as he started walking.

The two began their journey walking down the lonely road on his short legs. The full-moon glowed upon their heads and they directed toward the faintly visible mountain in front of them.

Collin was already tired of carrying her on his back and needed a number of stops to rest for a minute.

"That ball in the sky is white right now, it was orange earlier," Oriel pointed toward the full moon and said.

Collin was panting from the exhaustion but still tried to correct her misunderstanding, "That's the moon, what you see during the day is Sun... how old are you to not even know that?"

"No! look it's the same... round and so high." She gazed at the moon, confusing it with the sun.

Collin no longer bothered to explain it to her, "Alright, they are the same... now get on my back, we are almost there."

He was taking her to the hospital nearby, in search of his father. Oriel got on his back again and he completed the industrious journey and reached there.

In the middle of a vast dark region, the sign of the hospital glowed like a lighthouse for the ships. Collin seated Oriel on the bench lying outside. "Stay here! I will go and find our Dads." He instructed her and she obediently nodded and swung her legs while sitting on the bench.

Collin stepped inside the hospital and examined the faces of the people, looking for Oriel's father. He came across a nurse, who was coming out of a ward with a tray in her hands that contained articles familiar to him.

"Excuse me! That belongs to my father." He pointed at the wallet and watch belonging to his father.

The nurse turns to look at him. "Are you certain?" she asked.

Suddenly, the door to that ward opened and an intern walked out pushing the wheeled bed with a person on it, covered with a white sheet. Collin was perplexed and stunned to find the nurse and the dead body coming out of the same ward. The kid had his imaginations haunting him and drifted away from it.

The nurse standing beside comforted him, "Do you have your mother's number... or any other adult we can call?"

Collin's mind was blank, he couldn't think of anything else. "Is it really my dad?" he asked while reaching to remove the sheet from his face. His little hands grasped one end of the sheet and hesitantly pulled it off. But the face under the sheet belonged to George.

"A sigh released from his mouth; he was relieved to not find his dad in there. "He's not my father!... was there anyone who was brought with a stab wound?" He inquired the nurse.

"Oh! There was someone who came with him." The nurse's eyes widened when she recalled his father. "He got his wound treated and after having a blood transfusion, he discharged himself, just now."

"Where?... Where did he go?" Collin forgot about Oriel and the dead George; he only wanted to meet his father. "He must be outside..." The nurse could only proceed to this when Collin rushed out to look for him, leaving the body of George alone.

He ran through the crowded corridor while bumping into people, out of breath and exasperated. Suddenly, a figure resembling his father's came in contact with his view. Collin followed him, which led him to come outside where he had left Oriel to sit tight on the bench.

The man he was following disappeared from his sight when the corridor diverged into two, and Collin had lost the track of the last turn he took. He had missed his trail and came outside in disdain, finding Oriel, who was fanning her hand in the air to chase a butterfly that was flying over her head, "Uh! go away!"

Collin suddenly veered his priority after seeing her. He was struck by a guilty conscience for leaving George alone to find his father. He gazed at her smiling face and pondered upon various ways to tell her and turn that beautiful smile into tears.

"Please! Make it go away... it is trying to hurt me." Oriel was adorably fighting the butterfly which kept coming back to her. "It is not trying to hurt you... I think it likes you," said Collin.

"But I don't like it! Chase it away from me." Oriel pleaded with displeasure on her face.

Collin came forward and swung his hand to scare the butterfly off, "Is it fine now?"

"Yes!" She nodded and flashed her bunny teeth with a widened smile. Collin was unable to muster up the coldness and tell her about George.

"Oriel!... that's your name right?" He clenched his fingers to make a fist and poured all his strength into it. "Who else do you have in your family? Do you remember their phone number now?"

Oriel took a pause trying to remember something before saying that. "No one! It's just me and my Dad."

"How is it possible? You must have someone, what about your mom?"

"Oh! Yes, I have a mom." She jumped on her feet in ecstasy and pointed her finger at the starry night sky, "Look, there she is, the biggest star up there."

Collin sighed and lost the remaining strength in his legs to drop down to his knees. "Oriel! Can you please forgive me?" He asked.