Going Home

by Jan Prins

  They talked like that while they were eating their very early breakfast with fried eggs and coffee. But from whatever angle they looked at it, their mother did not come back with it.

  Merry thought it was mostly selfish that she had chosen for herself and left them that way, while Zach still could not believe it. “She will come back again, she can not live without us” he said, but it did not come out really convincingly. “She was always there for us and despite the fact that Dad died four years ago, she tried to be there for us. Even for me that tough adolescent boy “.

  Again he tried to reach her via his cell, but in vain. Also, her Facebook account turned out to be erased, Twitter was also out. “It’s just too bizarre for words,” he murmured with a desperate look in his eyes. “Mother suddenly disappeared like snow in the sun, you can not think of crazier!”

  His sister sat there shaking his head and finally poured coffee - very strong - with the hope that they would come up with a good idea. Because no matter how you looked at it: they were alone. Their brother had to go to school like Zach, who had just finished the examination year of the Bowie High School but had to take some final lessons and wanted to continue studying, while Merry had no idea what she would do after the Middle School.

  And then also no money. And where did that come from? And how was the rent and the gas etc. to be paid?? Their heads dizzied, but the answers remained.

  First to get Ethan out of bed and shower and dress myself, Merry thought …

  Zach was still hungry and for lack of better he ate some more toast that he washed away with some milk, the last one out of the bottle. There sounded on the stairs, that was Merry who carried Ethan downstairs. She had put on clean clothes after having showered him and brushing his teeth. “Good morning Zach” said the little boy softly and sat beside him at the table. His sister presented him with a plate of cornflakes with peanut butter sandwiches. The boy looked at them in turns and then came the already expected question “Is mommy not there yet?”

  They did their best to explain to him that she had called last night and that he should have greetings. But her business trip would take longer than she thought. She did not know when she came home. Ethan did not understand and began to snort softly, “How am I going to school?” Came out anxiously.

  “Well, very simple,” said Zach, while his sister looked at him strangely: “I’ll take you in the morning and Merry picks you up at four o’clock, is that okay?” The kid nodded, there was nothing else for him, there was no other choice.

  “But I have to bring bread to school!” “Do I prepare, with an apple and a packet of milk, do you like that?” There was hesitating nodding and Merry went to fulfill her “motherly” task, while Zach put his shoes on him and looked for his jacket. He wiped the tears from his face and modeled his hair. Slowly, Ethan got a little calmer and when it was a quarter past eight he walked out with Zach on his way to the Bowie Preschool.

  The distance to the school was for the sportsman Zach was a piece of cake and with three minutes he would be there, but he had not counted on the speed of a child of five years, which also saw all kinds of interesting things along the way.

  Finally they were at the school at a quarter to nine o’clock, but of course it had already started and the doors were locked. There was nothing else to do but to call. An angry lady Megan opened “Are you there at last? Who are you actually that you bring Ethan? ” Zach did not know what was happening to him, he looked at her in a bad mood and thought of a white lie “Apologies, my name is Zach. Our mother is on a business trip and I have overslept. That’s why I bring my brother to school now “.

  “It should not get any crazier,” she murmured sarcastically. “Go to Ethan’s class. And who will pick him up later? ”” My sister Merry, you know that anyway? He will come to pick him up. ”” If only she is on time “she was threatened and the door was slammed shut.

  He walked through the Bowie Preschool gate and once again looked puzzled: what a bitch she was, do not understand that that teacher is a terrible person! Because he was free for the first two hours, he had time to go to Bowie High School. On his way there he passed a nice terrace where he sat down and ordered cappuccino. The view of the local Archer Park was beautiful and slowly the tension drew away from his body.

  Involuntarily, his thoughts went into the situation that had arisen, what was he supposed to do? He was the oldest of the children and traditionally there was a responsibility on his shoulders, even as a man, although that was very outdated. Yet!

  What would mom have inspired to take this step and leave them in this situation. She had always been very good to them and he also had very good memories of her. She had helped him with everything from childhood. Dad was a lot out for his job as a banker, so she took a lot of what he would do differently. She helped at school, brought him to baseball training and on Saturday often drove the whole team in her car to an away game, sometimes more than an hour away. The car did not look, but she said nothing about it, on the contrary she enjoyed their pleasure and then took it for granted.

  Zach thought of all the rottenness he had brought out with his friends, and how his mother always got the consequences again, because she said: boys are boys! How often she did not expand the business right at school can not be counted. With a lot of patience and tact she had managed to get him to the Bowie High School and it went very well, he even succeeded, thanks to his mother Carolyn!

  But while he drank from his cappuccino, there were also some incidents in his memories that might lead to an answer from her flight. Sometimes there were letters she never spoke about, but she always threw them away after reading and then those unexpected mysterious phone calls she answered out of their ears! Sometimes she was simply not at home for no reason, she sometimes came back late. And never a word of explanation.

  She regularly sat in thought and stared into nothingness with a blank look. What was there? What was she thinking about? There was also a certain unrest in her, as if she were expecting something that was not right. What was going on in her head, what was she thinking about?

  No, the more Zach went back in his memory: there was definitely something going on with her. But yes, the children, were young and busy with other things and did not pay attention to them. But now, now that Zach was thinking back, yes, there was something strange! But what? And why did she leave?

  But it was now really time to visit the school, otherwise he would still be late! He quickly settled and walked through that beautiful wooded area in Bowie that led to his school. His friends were already there and in no time it was about baseball, cars and especially girls! That brought him back to the ground with both feet. At eleven o’clock they entered the school and sought their class. Social studies were on the program.

  Teacher Gerrard began and said, “Today I want to talk to you about something special. Suppose, I say emphatically that you would only be in life, how could you save yourself in this society? “

  It was as if Zach was getting a punch in his stomach, he felt white moving away and saw the world revolving around him. Not much later he collapsed unconsciously on the floor, his lectern compelling.

  Slowly he came back to see the concierge bending over him and looking at him worried. “What do you feel? Do you hurt somewhere? “Zach shook his head with difficulty,” No, I do not feel anything, I’m just dizzy and nauseous. Maybe something wrong eaten “. The concierge took him to his office and had him there on a couch.

  After an hour, Zach said that he thought it was going again and that he would rather go home to keep on recovering. “Fine dude, I’ll take you with my car”. And so it happened.

  The concierge walked with him along the path to the house and waited until he was inside. “Is your mother home?” He asked worriedly? “Unfortunately, she is on a business trip”. The concierge stressed to him that if it was not soon he would have to go to the doctor. “But you can always call me if necessary,” he added in a friendly v
oice and left him alone.

  Zach slowly walked into the empty and quiet house and dropped into a chair. He still could not comprehend the fact that the teacher wanted to discuss this topic right now, precisely because of a situation in which he had ended up with his sister and brother. It just could not be a coincidence!

  He looked around and noticed that it looked very messy. Something had to happen and he started cleaning up the room, putting away the toys, making the kitchen on the side, putting the dishes in the dishwasher and sucking the room. After an hour he looked around satisfied and felt much better, the work had cleared his head.

  Now above: with lead in the shoes he went upstairs and made the beds, but left Ma’s bedroom untouched, he could not afford that, Oh no, there was all the laundry as well! But how on earth does a washing machine work? Desperately, he searched for the manual that he found happy. After some study, he filled the washing machine and turned it on. He would probably do something wrong, but the main thing was that it got clean, right?

  Satisfied he looked around, that he had nicely fished! Oh, what are we supposed to eat tonight, in fact there is something else? There was nothing left! Suddenly he remembered that his sister had taken money from the kitchen cupboard. He quickly checked if there was anything left. Fortunately enough to hold out.

  Armed with a few bags, Zach walked to the nearest Bowie Marketplace and hit the most necessary. Some meat such as hamburgers and schnitzels and some kinds of vegetables, bread and sandwich etc. etc. At the cash register the amount to be paid was very disappointing, but fortunately he had enough money with him.

  Once he got home, he put everything into the kitchen. Merry had to clean up, he had done enough now.

  It was just after four days that his sister and his brother came home. Merry looked surprised at his home and was startled when she heard what had happened. “Is it a little bit now?” She asked anxiously and grabbed him. “Yes a bit. Have cleaned up the house for the distraction and done some shopping for tonight “.

  Merry looked at him strangely: “you?”. “Yes, and also the laundry!” “Oh heaven,” she said, “You have done the colorful laundry and the white laundry separately?” “Fur, white, what is that?” She ran upstairs and came a little later roaring down the stairs. “Look what has become of my blouse. It has become a doll’s dress. And from now on you will wear pink boxer shorts because the laundry has gone completely! “.

  The telephone rang and Zach accepted it, his teacher Gerrard was anxiously inquiring how he was doing. “One of these days we should talk about what happened, because I think there is more going on!”

  Search

  After drinking tea together, Merry went on to play Ethan again to distract his attention. This time it was up to Play Mobil to explore. Suddenly her cell phone went off, girlfriend Anna reported. They chatted back and forth until Anna asked if she would go to the disco next Saturday.

  Of course she also wanted to go there, but it was totally impossible in this situation. “No, very unfortunate. But my mother is on a business trip and then I have to take care of my brother “came out hesitantly. “Well, what a pity, can not Zach do that?” “No, that is not possible, he already has an appointment with a friend.” Disappointed the connection was broken and Merry felt nauseous. Lying to her best friend, she would never do that and now, now she could not do anything else, terrible.

  Meanwhile, Ethan had made a mess of it and Merry rushed to avoid worse. He started to whine for a glass of milk, but it turned out and Zach had not thought about it, so he quickly went back to Bowie Marketplace to get it.

  It was also time to make dinner by now, so she went to the kitchen and looked at the bags of groceries put there by Zach. What would that awkward brother have taken from me, she thought, and began to unpack everything. “Do not let me down” she murmured and began to peel potatoes and carrots and bake hamburgers. It did not go too smoothly, because she had only once helped her mother. But yes, she had no choice but to try. She was suddenly thrown into a role as “mother” by a schoolgirl!

  It was great that Zach had achieved all of this and had cleaned up the house, she had never expected it from him. They could now advance a few days. But then? Suddenly her jumped a terrible thought. Soon the money will be spent and how will it continue … And was the mortgage and the gas and you name it? And how should they do that later? If Zach was back from Bowie Marketplace soon, they would have to talk about it urgently, because if they did not have it, they might have been evicted, or the gas shut down! Then the Youth Care certainly came into action to place them in a foster family or an orphanage.

  But maybe Zach had a good idea, although he seemed pretty excited after the incident at school. That he, the tough big sportsman who could do everything, suddenly crashed on the ground unconsciously, must have been a big shock to him. It will not have done its self-confidence and ego well, Merry thought.

  There is Zach with the milk, not a minute too early because Ethan is getting really grumpy because he is not getting milk! Quickly it is poured for him and soon rest returns. “Say Zach,” Merry began, “I just got some anxiety about what might happen to us if we do not have any more money. How then should it continue? Maybe we will be evicted and we will still end up in an orphanage. Do you have any idea what we could do?”

  “Yes, that is a point” he said thoughtfully “I still have some money on the bank that I have spared from my newspaper district and for which I wanted to buy a moped. But I can postpone that and then we can use that money for the household. Then we can say it for a while. But yes for the mortgage, etc., we have to think of something like that. ”” And when I started looking for a job after school? “She said hesitantly.

  “A very good idea, but you can not continue studying”. “But I have not given up for anything yet, so we could do that if there is no other solution,” concluded Merry.

  “Tell Zach, would not we even go to the house to check if there is money somewhere? Maybe we’ll find some clues where Carolyn can be … “. Zach was immediately poking for this and they decided to make a game out of it so that Ethan could join in and know nothing. He ran to the attic to hide a bag of chips so that Ethan could find something.

  “Fancy a game of Ethan? Let’s look for sweets in the house. Whoever finds it first may keep it “. Well that was not to deaf ears said and soon you saw the three systematically search the house.

  They of course started in the room, looked in drawers and cupboards, looked under the cushions of the chairs and the couch and so on. First they found an address book at the bottom of a drawer at the phone. Further searching brought a tablet and some loose papers in a foreign language. The kitchen was punctured, but apart from the money in the kitchen cupboard there was nothing. The gang closet again brought out a notebook and a prepaid phone. In the corridor they found clothes on the coat rack that was decidedly different.

  They looked at each other questionable. “Let’s examine above Carolyn’s bedroom here Ethan here you have a bar because you’ve been looking so well,” Merry said as encouragement. With a rotten feeling they entered the bedroom of their mother and began to look under the mattress and in the bed, but apart from a Playboy there was nothing. All drawers and cabinets were examined and finally they looked in the built-in wardrobe.

  Zach turned on the flashlight on his cell phone and stepped into the closet. Intensively he examined everything and knocked himself on the walls. Suddenly there was a hollow sound and Zack looked even more intensely at the wall. He pulled a nail and a door opened that closed a hidden space. “Merry come soon” he called and together they looked what would be there.

  Bewildered, they took five different passports from different countries from space, then a kind of diary in a very foreign language and all kinds of papers with strange numbers on it and many papers from The Mint Leaf. In a corner there was a checkbook with traveler checks. Finally, they found a few keys.

  “Zach, this feels completely wron
g! What would that mean? “But Zach just stood and did not say anything until he said,” Let’s first examine the house. “They left their own bedrooms for what it was and went to the bathroom. Their search yielded a box of curious tablets in the medicine cabinet that looked like drugs.

  “Found” sounded the voice of Ethan from the attic “Tasty chips, I won!!” They went to him and while he was enjoying themselves, they searched the attic. It was checked whether there was something in the suitcases, in the cupboards, behind the back wall, yes even under a loose shelf. But they did not find anything there.

  There was only the cellar left, so they stumbled down the stairs. Ethan went to watch children’s television and they went down the cellar stairs. Their search first only supplied cobwebs in their hair until Merry’s eye fell on the boiler. “Look” see them “underneath that boiler is a room”. Zach dropped flat on the floor and felt as if something was lying there. To their surprise, he pulled out an old laptop and a book.

  “Unbelievable,” said Merry. “We have found enough to occupy ourselves for the time being. Maybe we find a clue. Come on we go to Ethan, who needs to go to bed. And then we can submit this to an investigation “.

  That night, Zach could not get to sleep, he would rotate restlessly, but his thoughts were all those mysterious things they had found. They had looked at everything, but the more they looked, the less they understood it. All passports had their mother’s picture, but the passports were all in a different name and from another country, had a different date of birth and a different address. The number sequences were totally incomprehensible and the diary unreadable. The only thing they understood were the checks. Merry had told him that she could make the signature of their mother. Do you have to check, he thought.