Who is this man?

I was stuck with tens of thousands of what-ifs and bad feelings. My mood got worse when I realized that the man was looking back at me in a way that made it seem like we were both trying to figure out who we were in Mom's life.

Why should my mother invite her friend over to our house, especially if he is a male? If he was our relative, she already told me about it without any hesitation, right?

A complete and utter stranger seeing as how I have never seen him before; on the other hand, I may have seen him previously but have simply forgotten about him.Before I can let them in the house, I need to find out the reason why. Even if I had a hunch, I wouldn't accept it as truth until Mom confirmed it. I won't pass judgment on her; instead, I'll wait for her to explain herself.

Who am I to do such a thing?

"Hey, Amelia? Come on! You need to open the gate! Now!" Mom's yells made me awake.

I couldn't move my feet, even though I wanted to. It was as if I were rooted to the ground.

"Amelia, do you want the three of us to perish in this oven-like environment? What are you doing? Open the gate! Are you deaf now or something? Can't you hear me?"

I was taken aback since it seemed as though my mother had developed a new personality, almost as if she were not my mom. Even at the volume of her voice, I did not budge an inch. The veins in her neck were now so tense that they were almost ready to burst.

"Get back to your senses, Amelia Rose. Are you unable to see? Are you messing with me?" Mom went on with her many complaints.

Her face was now showing signs of anger and was covered with beads of sweat, which caused her light makeup to run. It was funny because she looked like a clown! I couldn't laugh, as I could not believe what I was seeing. I need to blink twice in surprise.

Amelia, you need to pick yourself up and get your act together. You are doomed! Open the gate before your mother turns into a monster.

I hurried as quickly as I could toward them without uttering a word as I attempted to comply with my furious mother's command to open the gate. I had never been in the same place with this man before, so I did not know what to make of him and continued staring at him. When I noticed that he was pulling a suitcase out of his right hand and placing it on his side, my interest was piqued. It seems like he already planned to make our home his permanent place. That was the way that I interpreted his actions. And it baffled me more than it already had.

I am not used to sharing my home with an unknown person, and if my intuition was accurate, it was the first time since I was born that I had done so, as far as I could remember, excluding my late father.

"Amelia, could you just tell me what you are doing? What was the delay that kept you from opening the gate sooner? Are you deaf? Do you not recognize the sound of my voice?" My mom grumbled as I rapidly walked through the gate, waving my hand in front of her and asking her to please stop talking. Her voice was pissing me off.

I avoided answering the question by focusing my attention on the mysterious stranger standing next to her. My eyes get increasingly interested, and I was startled to have a fuzzy image of him in my head concerning the events I cannot recall.

"Answer me, Amelia. Were you napping all the time? Have you given our home a thorough cleaning while I was gone? Or did you spend those days doing nothing more than sleeping and being a slug? Answer my questions, Amelia!" my mother proceeded as if she didn't see my confused and slightly disappointed looks.

"Mom, you are too loud! Lower your voice," I urged her while subtly massaging my forehead to convey my discomfort over her own loud voice.

Somehow, I was thankful that our house had a distance from another house from our neighbor. If this was not the case, perhaps they were already chatting about my mother's loud voice and ranting every single day causing rumors.

"Would it be possible for you to lower the volume of your voice?" I repeated myself; my tone is a bit annoyed.

Mom instantly put her hands on her hips to show me that she was upset with how I was behaving. I looked away, as I did not seem bothered by the frightening gray eyes of the unknown man who was also with her as he gazed back and forth at my mother and me. He appeared to be six feet tall. His physique was also very masculine, and it was very lean. Probably he had the same age as my dad if I am not mistaken.

"So, you didn't get anything done around the house while I was gone." She continued, saying it was not a question but a pure statement.

"I'm sorry, Mom, but to tell you honestly, I've finished all the chores. I scrubbed the toilets, washed the dishes, and even waxed the filthy floor." I replied, counting the list one by one under my fingernails, a bit embarrassed.

"Are you sure?"

Her eyes bore into my face as if I were telling lies. The volume of her voice had now lowered. I heaved a deep sigh.

"Yeah, Mom." 

If it were an ordinary day, she would have told me that I was the most wonderful daughter in the universe and hugged me before as she showed how she missed me, but she seems different this afternoon. I understand why.

"But mom...could you give me an honest explanation right now of who this man is? Why is he hanging around with you? Is he one of our city-dwelling relatives?" I fired those questions with a friendly tone.

I glanced back at the stranger standing in front of us like a frozen tree in the middle of the Forester Woods. His presence is a bit somehow familiar, even though it was frigid, blank, and enveloped by deafening silence at night with a frosty breeze under the moonlight. He looks powerful. His aura is a bit different in my eyes.

My mother did not respond as I looked at her visitor intensely. The fact that this was the first time she had ever done something like this to me made me feel uneasy. And because of that, I was causing her even more distress.

"Mom..." I grunted as I heard her start ranting about something that was not necessary at that moment.

I knew she would have become an unpopular rapper by the time she arrived home, so I had already completed those duties before her return. I gently asked her once more, pointing my hand in the visitor's direction.

"Who is this man?"

In the back of my mind, I looked for him where I had possibly met the man. I repeated my question as I let go of the door of our gate to make it open and angrily folded my arms near my chest."Would you mind telling me, Mom?"