Episode 4

My uncle looked at me with tears in his eyes. He was silent for a while. Maybe he was contemplating on whether to send a 14 year old boy with him to the mortuary or not.

"Please, uncle. I don't want to be alone here. Let me come with you," I said again, this time a little softly.

"I can't take you there with me, Daniel. That place is not meant for a child like you. I don't want to leave you traumatized for the rest of your life," he shook his head slowly.

"Please uncle. I can't stay here alone. I will wait outside if that's all it takes. But please, let me come with you." I pleaded with him again, with tears in my eyes.

He gave a slight nod. "Okay, I will take you with me. Let's change into something befitting then go."

He got up and stretched his hand towards me. I took it and he led me upstairs to change. I got to my room feeling tired and drained out of life. I had not imagine to wake up to this kind of news. I thought my day was going to go smoothly. How could this happen?

I fell into my bed and cried some more. "Why? Why did this have to happen? Why?" I kept repeating to myself as more tears flowed from my eyes.

After a while, I got up from bed and opened my drawer. I took out a black shirt and changed into it. I closed the drawer and left my room. My uncle was already downstairs waiting for me when I got there. He smiled a little when he saw me approach him.

"Ready to go?"

I nodded slightly, not trusting myself at the moment. I felt like breaking down again. But, I had to be strong. For myself and for my uncle. We walked out of the house and headed towards the garage where My Father had all his cars packed. My uncle pressed on the buttons on the wall and the gates to the garage opened.

As I said, my father was a wealthy man. And he had cars to prove it. He had eight cars in the huge garage. I don't know much about cars so I never took interest in learning which car was which. Uncle George walked around the garage and picked the one he felt will suit the occasion. It was just a small saloon car, but, it was one of my father's favorite cars. He loved driving that car and always drove around town with it anytime he came back from a trip.

The keys to each car hanged in a glass case that hang loosely on its hanger. uncle George knew which key to look for. He picked out the key from the case and closed it. He hanged it back in its position and turned around to face me. He held my hand, led me to car and helped me sit inside when he opened the doors. He ran to the opposite side and sat in.

He started the car and drove out of the garage. After closing the gates, he ordered the security man to open up the main gates while we drove off. From the house to the hospital was quite a distance. We were stuck in traffic somewhere in town but managed to get to the hospital earlier than we thought. Uncle George opened his door, then turned to me.

"Daniel, I will need you to stay here. I am going inside to speak with them. I will be right back."

I nodded. He stepped out of the car and closed the door behind him while I waited. It took him like what seems like forever to come out. And when he did, I saw him shaking the hands of another man. I was guessing that man knew where my parents had been taken. Uncle turned away from the man and walked towards the car. He sat in and let out a deep breath.

I looked at him silently and noticed that his eyes were already red. He must have been crying.

"Did you see them?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Yes. They have been taken to the mortuary which is behind the hospital. I will have to call your uncles and tell them what has happened."

The mention of my uncles brought some sort of fear to me. My two older uncles have never liked me for as long as I can remember. Whenever they saw me, they would sometimes pass rude comments at me or totally ignore me. My parents knew this when they were alive, so they stopped taking me with them whenever they went to pay them a visit. Now that my parents are dead, I don't know what they would do to me.

"You seem quiet like you are thinking of something. Is something bothering you?"

I shook my head. However, my uncle saw right through me. "I know something is bothering you and don't tell me it's nothing. It's about Stephen and Nathan, right?"

I looked at him shyly and nodded. "I don't understand why they don't like me. I have never being rude to any of them, yet, they avoid me like I am some sort of a plague. I may be a child, but I know when someone literally hates you like my uncles does to me. Please uncle George, is there something wrong with me?"

"Why would you think about something like that? There is nothing wrong with you. You are a very respectful and kind boy and if they can't see that, that is their loss. Listen, don't let how they feel about you get to you, okay? They are my brothers and I know how they are like. So, I understand how you feel perfectly well. Anyway, let's go home and rest. We have a long week ahead of us." he said and started the car.

It was almost 4 o'clock when we got home. The hospital we had gone to was in another region of the country so we had to leave the place early so that we could get home early. I was happy that although today is a weekday, it happened to be a holiday. I don't think I would have been able to concentrate in school if this had happened on a school day.

I had not eaten anything since morning, yet I did not feel hungry. I was rather feeling tired and worn out. I guess the situation is what called for it. I just ran upstairs to my room and fell on my bed. I closed my eyes, hoping that this was some kind of dream I could wake up from any moment from now.