Chapter II

“Red? Or white?” he asked as he showed his sister the two different colored shirts he had in hand.

“Red,” she said bluntly without taking her eyes off her phone. Right there and then, he threw the white shirt in the sofa and wore the red one. He began to look around the room as if he was searching for something.

“Where’s the book I left here?” he said almost furious since he hated to search for things.

His sister, Georgea kept herself busy with her phone which she allowed no one to touch. Without looking, she could feel her brother’s frustration as he paced around the room searching for his notebook. “Look at the baby,” Georgea said still looking at her phone.

“What have you done?!” he said furiously and then moved towards the innocent baby.

He stretched out his hand and pulled away his book. The innocent baby, had apparently seen his book as the perfect surface to scribble and make sketches of whatever she had in mind. He became filled with rage when he flipped through the pages and realized she had used the pen in her hand to write on almost every page. He snatched the pen from her hand and threw it away.

“See what you’ve done! Your father better get me a new one,” he said raged to the baby who just stared at him.

Suddenly, the quiet baby began to cry and it was loud. Her cry made him angrier but he did not know how to shut her up.

“Her cry is like loud music yet I hate it. Shut her up already,” Georgea said finally looking away from her phone.

“I don’t know; what do I do?” he said confused and disturbed by her cry.

“Oh, my baby,” their mother said.

She came out from one of the rooms holding a box. She dropped it and rushed to carry and soothe the crying baby. “Stop crying, dear,” she said calmly and then turned to the two.

“What did you do?” she asked looking angry.

The two began to narrate what had happened but she would not listen. In fact, she began to sing to the baby who seemed calm now and turned a deaf ear to the two.

“Well, in short, I need a new book!” the boy, still angry said. He moved away and took a bag from the sofa then began to walk towards the door as his sister followed.

“And where are you going, young man?”

“Remember? I need to meet with Kwesi for our project.”

Yes, she had forgotten as always. He opened the door and as he was about to step out, he turned to Georgea and the two performed their well-practiced handshake which was very interesting to watch. They end with a hug as their mother and the baby watched.

“Be careful and be back early,” Gyaba, their mother said looking serious still holding the baby in hand.

“Don’t worry mom. I’ll be careful not to get you another grandchild. Maybe in the future but not now,” he said rebelliously and then closed the door behind him.

Gyaba’s serious face turned into a disappointed one and Georgea stood behind her smiling. Then, Georgea began to walk away.

“Where to?” Gyaba asked.

She decided not to answer her mother by pretending not to have heard her question. She kept walking towards her room but when she was almost there, she turned to her mother who stood at the same spot.

“I’m going into my room, put on my headphone and play some loud music, so that when you call me, I won’t hear you,” Georgea also said rebelliously still smiling.

True, she went into her room and shut the door behind her. She jumped onto her bed which was covered with her clothes. Generally, her entire room was a mess. At least, she did find her headphone and began to listen to loud music. For a moment, she felt happy and satisfied but the next, she felt sad. However, she did not know why. Who was she kidding? She knew; she knew why she was sad. Her family used to be happy. Happy? They were perfect and now, well, they were broken. She got up from her bed and moved to the mirror in her room. She looked at herself, her sad face. For so long, she had played as the happy satisfied girl. The strong one, the unbothered one but, all that pretense was killing her inside. She looked at her face and then she saw tears rolling own her cheeks. This shocked her as it had been a long time since she cried. She touched her tears and wiped it off immediately. Then, after composing herself, she looked at her face again in the mirror and faked a smile.