WRITTEN BY
STEVEN JERAL HARRIS
EDITED BY
EMERALD LORDSFAME
S4 ep10 Season Finale
The Accident.
My insomnia still
haunts me. All I can think about is my mother. I’m worried sick about her. I do manage to get some sleep, but only
a little.
My eyes open for the
fifth time in the middle of the night. There's a faint noise outside my
bedroom. It’s an unfamiliar voice,
a man’s voice, but the voice
sounds very distant. I walk across the room and peep out my room door slightly.
All I can see is a glimmer of light coming from downstairs.
I close my bedroom door
behind me, tip toe down the hallway, and make my way downstairs. All of the
kitchen lights are on. I walk into the living room to find Kenya sitting on the
sofa watching television. She looks up at me with a surprised look.
"Hi," I
greet her half-heartedly.
She then smiles at me.
"Hello Iva, can't
sleep?"
"Not
really."
"You came down
here wishing to find someone else?" she peers at me with a smirk.
I immediately let out
a smile.
"You don’t need to say a word. I already know your answer," she says.
There’s a slight pause between the two of us. I look over at the large
flat screen on the wall.
"What are you
watching?"
"A soccer game.
Do you watch sports?"
"No, I’m not a sports person, at all." I make sure she hears the
words, “at all”, clearly.
"I watch it
occasionally,” she continues, “I'm not an athlete either, but I’ve been to a game before. It’s very entertaining."
She looks at the
television, not watching the game, yet thinking deeply.
"The humans are
so carefree, about everything."
She says.
"Ignorance is
bliss," I say to myself, but she hears me.
She breaks away from
her deep thought and shifts towards me.
"Is it?" she
ponders again but mildly. "Hmmm...
“But the truth will
set them free.”
“Maybe they don’t want to be free. Maybe they like being ignorant,” I reply.
“That’s so interesting. It doesn't matter what decisions we make in
life, there's always a consequence, always."
She grabs the remote
and switches off the television.
"Well..." she
stands to her feet and breaks a smile. "...how are you feeling? Better I
hope."
"I feel
okay."
"That’s good. Come, sit with me. Keep me company."
I follow her into the
dining room, and then sit down at the table as she walks into the kitchen.
"Do you like tea,
Iva?"
"Do I? That’s all I ever drink."
I hear the sound of
closing cabinets, followed by the sound of water being poured into cups. She
then walks into the dining room with a mug in each hand, places one down in
front of me, and takes a seat across from me.
"Thanks," I
say as I take a sip.
We marinate in silence
while drinking our sweet green tea together.
"If you don’t mind me asking, where is their father?" I ask, realizing I
shouldn’t when I see her face flatten.
She places down her
cup of tea and looks at it.
"Um, their father
died, years ago."
"I’m so sorry."
"No it’s fine, don’t be sorry. It
happened fifteen years ago. My son was eight at the time. He and Mane
were…" she swallows down the hurt. "...the best of friends. Mane
always was a bit…different. But his father understood him. When he died, it was
like a piece of him, also died. That’s when he became
obsessed at solving things," her eyes start to glisten a little. “A doctor
one day told me he’d noticed such behaviour
before. He says it’s because some people,
when something terrible happens to them and they don’t have an answer for it, they go to other things to sort out their
problems. His, of course, is puzzles.”
"How did he die,
if you don’t mind me
asking?"
She finally looks up
at me.
"One day they
were going fishing. On the way back the car went off a bridge and into the water.
An eighteen wheeler crushed the passenger side of the car.
Mane stuck in there.
He told me that all he could remember was water everywhere. He noticed that the
roof of the car was peeling back. His father saved his life just in time. As he
went to the surface someone helped pull him to safety. It was your Uncle.”
“My Uncle?”
“Yes, it was his first
day on the job. Strangely, Mane never liked your Uncle after that. I believed
it’s because Mane thinks
he should’ve died there with him.”
“Wow, Uncle Frank never
told me about that.
“So, did his father
drown?”
“Yes. They found his
body under the car, it flipped on him," her breathing collapses. "I
was in the kitchen when I felt this pain in my chest. That’s when I knew something terrible had happened."
"Hold on, you
felt him dying?"
"Yes. We are a
lot different from humans, spiritually. Sometimes, if you love someone unconditionally,
you become spiritually bonded to that person. It doesn't matter where you are.
If you are bonded to that person, when they are in grave danger, you will find
them. It’s a very rare
occurrence. But believe me Iva, it’s more of a curse than
a gift. I was heartbroken when I lost him, but feeling him suffer to death was
the worst pain of all.”
“I can’t imagine going through that.” The thought alone saddens me.
“When my son returned
home, it was like staring at a brick wall. He didn’t speak for a very long time after that. Some children at school
started to make a sport out of him, so I kept him home for a while. He grew to
be very isolated and angry. I spent so much money sending him to several
doctors and psychologists. But nothing worked,” she pauses to wipe a tear from
her eye, “one day, months later, he spoke while we were eating at the table. He
said he wanted to be alone. And now that’s all he ever wants.”
She clears the hoarse from
her throat.
“The person he once
was and ever will be is somewhere in that lake,” she breaks the gloomy mood
with a calm grin. “Well, I’m heading back to bed.
You have a good night,” she says with a bleak smile.
She goes in the kitchen
then places her mug into the sink.
“Try to get some
sleep,” she tells me. “You have a long day ahead of you.”
“What’s happening tomorrow?”
She chuckles and says…
“You have a lot of
people to meet silly girl.”
She walks out of the
dining room and up the steps…
Watch out for Season Five...
