Two things to do! Find out what's up about Dad and find out why Uncle Liam, our butler, looked at me like that!
I raced through my parents wing and down the stairs to the ground floor where the kitchen is at. As expected, I found uncle Liam at his throne by the door of the back door puffing away at his favorite brand of cigar. I didn't stop until I was standing in front of him, breathing like the puffing bag of a steamer.
"What happened? I asked him, trying to catch my breath.
" How do you feel?" He responded.
"Well, I feel alright.." I responded, totally confused.
"Good." He then shrugged and took a swing at his cowboy's tiny, silvery rectangular vodka flask.
I watched him a bit and I knew something was pissing him off but because I was the one that did that something, unless I pushed him, he wouldn't say.
"Uncle Liam, what did i do now? Did Dad came and found the truck? Is he angry with me?" I asked since I couldn't come up with any other reason why he was so angry with me.
"How many did you take?" He looked at me warily.
"How many what? I don't understand."
" The drugs, how many did you take last night?" He asked glaring at me.
"I…i…" I raced through my mind, trying to remember but nothing came up. "...I don't know… four? Maybe six I think. Why?... Why are you asking?" I cautiously asked.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?!" He suddenly stood up and towered over me, forcing me to ring my neck up and take a step back, creating enough room to see his face. I was really confused. He searched my eyes and should have concluded that I was really lost because he heaved and the threatening aura I felt reduced. I instantly relaxed, relaseing a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"You slept all day, I tried to wake you up. The doctor had to come in to check you. He gave you some injections. Why did you do it?"
The more he talked, the hotter I became and the more my body hair rose until I was covered in goosebumps and breathing heavily. My eyes were dragged apart and pushed to the brink of their sockets in horrific shock.
I overdosed… again!
You know how I said I learnt not to do everything Daniel did so I don't end up like him? Yeah, there is an exception. Because I constantly use sleeping pills to relax and sleep mostly at night, I have had some accidents. Let's just say this will be the fourth time I overdosed on those pills.
They are pills Uncle Liam helps me get through his mother's doctor's prescription. She is old and suffers from arthritis. He shares her drugs with me and because it's one of those pills that even if you take a dozen, you would still wake up without help. I sometimes become reckless and just take more than two pills depending on my mood.
Most of the time this happened, something always triggered this irresponsible behaviour and because Uncle Liam knows i'm a creature of habits, once I miss a routine, he would come to my room to check up on me even though we hardly say anything to each other in the house. It's not that I didn't try. I mean, he was there when I was born and was even my bodyguard for events and shows until my last contract, but Uncle Liam could easily pass for a mute because he hates talking. The longest I have seen him talk was with Dad. Even mum only gets him to answer in nods and syllabus.
"I… I could not sleep and must have kept popping it. I can't remember. What did the doctor say? Did mum see him?" I asked agitatedly.
"If she knew, would you be here talking to me right now?"
True. She would have brought it up and recommend therapy, fawn over me for the next couple of days and just make me really wanna kill myself for real.
Last time this happened, Uncle liam threatened to stop providing the pills and I had promised profusely that it would never happen again. I suddenly found it hard to keep looking him in the face so cast my head down and stared at my toes dejectedly. Making sure he saw how sad my shoulders were when they dropped.
"I am sorry."
Uncle Liam just stood up and entered the house. Like always, he treated me like air. The signal that he was done talking.
I rolled my eyes and went after him.
"What's Up With Dad?!"
"He is staying at his hunting cabin for the week".
" it's not hunting season yet."
Uncle liam opened his room door and banged the door in my face. I tsked. Sometimes I wonder who was the boss. I rolled my eyes, turned around and left for my room where I quickly cleaned up and prepared for the night. Just as I was coming out of my walk-in closet in my pajamas, I heard Uncle Liam's bike as it reved. I hurried over to my window and watched him leave the compound with a backpack on his back.
Of course, I wouldn't be seeing Dad until Mum leaves.
While I don't know what exactly happened between these two some months back, I did suspect that maybe Mum had found out about Dad and Joshua. I woke up to them having a shouting match and Joshua's name came up several times but because their wing is quite far from mine with a whole box house in between, all I could make out of their brawl was an occasional "shameless", "scandal and disgrace." Mum left the house that morning and didn't return for two months. And when she eventually did, Dad also left until she travelled again.
Meanwhile two weeks after Mum left, Joshua was found mauled to death by suspected wild animals in one of the hunting forests on our land.
It was the first time I would see so many cops and cops' cars on our land. They interrogated everybody and it was in the news for weeks. After it was decided that his death wasn't murder, all the other domestic staff were retired except for Uncle Liam. Knowing what I know now, I feel vexed by Mum's behavior. What right does she have to be angry with him? He was cheating and she was cheating too. The way I see it, she is the bad one. Cheating from way back with her best friend's husband, even placing him in our household. Yet just because Dad cheated with a boy, she went berserk on him.