Oh, You Wish

{ARMANDO}

Getting out of bed I sigh as I stare at the watch on the wall, it is not even 1 PM yet, I look at the watch and ask it, "can you please go any slower?"

Like seriously, I think I have stayed in the room like forever, not that I have anywhere to be, but I would really love for it to run and the night to come and when it does I will go through the same process I have been going through, I will curse the time which seems to be going slowly.

For someone like me with insomnia, I normally find that the time doesn't go that fast, I will look away from the watch and hope when I turn back the time has gone in the hope that the morning has arrived, and not that I have anything to do anything in the morning, but I would love for the night to be done and the morning to begin.

And then when the morning began I will wish for the day to be over so I will go to my bed, and the cycle continues that way.

Well, it is sad, and my father is right there is no way I can get any sadder, but hello, this is the story of my life and I won't dare exchange it with another person. It is mine and I am not complaining.

I walk to the window and look outside, between you and me the window has become my best friend and since it can speak or complain in that matter, I will keep coming here and stare outside through it.

But one thing I want to make sure is my father to not find me here, because if he does, I won't hear the end of it.

I watch down and I can see someone in our swimming pool and I am sure it is none other than Arthur, he is the only person who can swim at this time of the day. I walk to my closet get my swimming costume and walk out of the room.

"Sally," I call, it is the cleaner and I guess she is here to clean my room.

"Armando." She says smiling, "Armando." She repeats again, I think she hasn't gotten the fact that I am back and since I haven't spoken to her she won't, but I don't want to, "aargh."

"I am here to clean dear, you know now since you are back I have to clean the room."

"Sally, you don't have to, it is clean," I tell her as I close the door.

"No, it is not when did you clean it last?"

"You caught me, okay, I will clean it myself later."

She looks at me up and down and if nods her head, she turns around and left. I watch as she walks away and I am surprised she didn't argue with me, oh, no! I hope I didn't scare her away.

I remember growing up we used to have the same conversation we just had, but then she didn't use to back down as she knew I was lying when I told her I will wash the room later, so she would bring up the idea of us washing the room together.

I smile as I remembered those moments, they used to be happy moments as we would enjoy ourselves, he would show me how to clean the room, the bathroom, how to arrange the clothes, and how to iron them. She would show me everything related to her line of duty.

Those were the days when I used to be the Armando everyone loved and liked and I guess from our early talk she saw that I was no longer that person and I was not going to agree to her idea of cleaning the room together.

Or maybe she had her reasons.

Or maybe my father asked her to stay away from me.

No.

It was number one, there is no way it can be number two.

The one thing I love about my parents is that they see every worker in our home as a family so, there is no need for Sally to avoid me. Growing up, I could go and work with Mr. Jaime or even help our cook in the kitchen or even help the pool boy or the people who work on our farm.

After counting all those people I open the door and go back in, I can't go to the swimming pool now.

Those are the number of people I am going to meet and they will tell me the same thing.

Hi, Armando.

How have you been?

We have missed you.

Are you okay Armando?

Those questions are the ones I don't want to answer, they might be simple but I don't know if I fear answering them because I will find myself yelling at them for asking me that, or I will find myself crying for them for asking me those questions.

They like family and between option one, yelling and option two, crying. I don't want either of them to happen. So, guess what? I will go with the perfect option, option three and that is the best one I have so far.

Avoid them all!

I will do so as long as it will take and I can make that happen because they are not going to come to my room and force me out of it, right?

I return the swimming costume to the closet, take my phone, and a seat on my bed, I find my mother's text saying, "dear son, I didn't mean to offend you."

I chuckle and send her a voice note, "yes mother you did, I am angry at you."

She replies immediately with a voice note, "boy you can't be angry at me, I am your mother."

I grin and record another one, "mom, this means the apology you sent is nothing."

"Yeap." That is my mother's reply, I type to her it is okay and that I am not angry at her. She sends back, "okay then, you should know I will never say something to hurt you."

I look for Arthur's phone number and text him, "hi, we are going out today." I get a reply immediately and it is as if he has been waiting for my text, "yes, thanks, thanks, which club?"

"Oh, You wish," I reply with a chuckle and place my phone on the table. I hope I am not going to regret this.