Jean's Family

Jean had never for once seen his mother in such state. She was always a well reserved and confident individual. So, seeing her in a startled state like this, made him look more disturbed than Natalie herself.

Raising her head and rubbing her face, Natalie glanced at Jean and spoke in a low tone.

"Him, too is my parent."

With a subtle frown, Jean gaped. He then opened his mouth, closed it and then opened it again.

But before he could even utter a word, Natalie added:

"I know you must be wondering that how comes I have two fathers."

Jean relaxed a bit and nodded silently.

Resuming with the chopping of the onions, Natalie sighed heavily.

"You have to know that; your dad's parent are my parents, too."

Jean shuddered and froze in place. Moments passed in tense silence, only disturbed by the crunching sound of onions being chopped.

Noticing this, Natalie paled a bit but still concentrated on chopping the onions.

'My dad… I miss him in my life. I envy those who have grown up with both their father and mother.'

Jean thought in a melancholic mood.

While growing up, Jean felt spiteful for not having a father figure by his side. He has always been raised by his mom all this time.

What made him bitter, was the fact that he didn't have the luck of knowing his dad, let alone meeting him. He was dead, that was what he believed. This was based on the information that was provided to him by his mother.

Jean remembers the repetitive conversation he used to have whenever he would ask his mom about the whereabouts of his dad.

***

"Mom, where is my dad?"

"…You don't have one?"

"What do you mean, by that?"

"He is no more."

"…Do you mean he is dead?"

"Something like that."

"What could have killed him?"

"I don't know and please, ask me something else."

"What was he called?"

"Jean, I told you to ask me something else."

***

This conversation tended to create a rift of misunderstanding between the two, which made Jean to hate it and at the long last avoid it at all cost.

After a long period of silence, Natalie cleared her throat.

"I am sorry to tell you this. The former owner of this house was the biological father of your dad. So, that makes him your grandfather, too."

Trying hard to attain a reserved state, Jean glanced at Natalie nervously. As if noticing this, Natalie spared him a quick glance and continued with her chores.

"You had a grandmother, too."

Jean's eyes widened.

A moment later, Natalie added,

"The mother to your father. They resided in Celta village – Our village. But I didn't have a chance to meet her."

Natalie paused for a while. A tense silence then settled between them.

A few breathes away, Natalie continued…

"She was late by the time I was getting married to your dad."

A forlorn atmosphere descended in the room. Everybody seemed sombre for a few moments.

She then added,

"I pity you that you were not lucky to meet either of the two. But all I can tell you is that; your grandfather was a generous individual for all I know. What you don't know is that this house was already intended for us to move in. it was specifically built by him for me and your dad. It was unfortunate that he passed away just a few months after the completion of the house."

Jean's grandpa was indeed so caring. He had offered to stay in the village as his son and the wife stay in his modern house in Kili city. But the two were reluctant to move to the city. This was due to the fact that Natalie was already working at the village hospital and leaving the village, meant leaving the job.

This was not in line with Natalie's aim and desires.

She had studied so hard in order to serve her village people. This desire of hers was fuelled by what had transpired in her past.

There was a plague that devoured a section of his village people among them her three siblings. She was the only one that managed to survive. What protected her from being devoured by the plague not known to anyone, including herself to date.

This left a scur in her heart and as a result, she worked so hard to become a doctor. When her senior secondary results came out, she had passed her exams and she was eligible to study medicine. But she was forced to study nursing because she was told the medical positions were full.

She was disheartened by the news, but she had no choice other than to study nursing because she saw it as being closer to medicine.

After the completion of her tertiary education, she was posted in Celta village as an internee. This made her to feel a little bitter. This was because she had expected to be posted in Kelb village where she grew up. But to her surprise, she was posted in Celta village.

At first, it was hard for her to accept, but when she considered that the two villages bordered each other, she convinced herself that her village people could be moving to Celta village and she would be there to serve them, too. She also considered Celta village people as his own village people, this was because the two villages shared a lot in common, especially in culture and lifestyle.

She was then forced to move and settle in Celta village, where he met Jean's dad, started a relationship with him and later got married to him.

By then, Jean's dad was a farmer as well as his dad – Jean's grandfather.

Jean's father happened to meet Jean's mother when she one day ordered some farm produce from Jean's grandfather, while residing in Celta village. Since Jean's grandfather was not in position to do so, he requested his son – Jean's dad to deliver the items to her. And that is how their relationship kicked-off, and finally ended up in their marriage.

After a long period of silence, Natalie continued:

"In order for your grandpa to build such a house, he worked extremely hard. He used virtually all his savings to make this happen. I hope you would also treasure it because of the sacrifice he made."

Jean nodded silently and continued with cleaning the dishes.

'Now I understand why we had to stay in the village all that time.'

Soon, lunch was served in the dining area. The two sat opposite across each other as they enjoyed their lunch meal.

By then, Jean's hunger had reached its peak. So, he found himself throwing table manners out of the window, and decimated the food in front of him like a hungry caged beast.

This made Natalie to stare at him from time to time in embarrassment.

'This kid, he has a big appetite, just like his dad. I really miss him.'

Some moments later, Jean had scoured every remaining portion of the food, and he was now smiling tentatively as he gazed at the empty dishes in front of him.

At that moment, Natalie who was now heading upstairs resounded,

"The next phase of the tour is in a few minutes."

Jean grinned.

Without stopping Natalie added,

"So, make sure the table is wiped clean and the dishes are sparkling clean within those few minutes. Ten minutes at most."

Instantly, Jean's grin disappeared, replaced by a frown. He clenched his fist and almost hit the dining table in front of him. He was exasperated by the fact that he needed to perform some chores between his most important tour of the house.

He had been waiting for this part of the tour with bated breath. So, he didn't entertain the act of introducing other 'inappropriate' according to him, like cleaning of dishes before the outside tour.

Standing up, he turned around and glanced at the wall-clock in the living area.

It read: 1:47 PM

'I should hurry so that by 2 PM I am ready for the tour. This was what I have been waiting for. The inner tour has also fed me with some extra information, but the outside tour was what I was waiting for. The brief tour the previous day didn't teach me that much. I am hopping this to be as informative as I expect.'

With that thought, Jean collected the dishes from the table and took them to the kitchen. A few moments later, he came back with a rag that he used to clean the dining table.

Without wasting time, he dashed into the kitchen and begun cleaning the dishes.

'For the very first time, I can proudly say that I am enjoying this chore. Perhaps it has been influenced by what is to follow. What else, the answer is clear. I hope mom won't come up with any excuse when I am done with this. I need to be with her so that I can have a deeper understanding of what I need to know.'

In less than eight minutes, Jean was done with washing the dishes. The activity that would have taken him like twenty minutes, he had a whooping twelve minutes to spare which was a surprise.

'So, I can get this quick if I mean business. Where is mom, now. Should I go and tell her that I am done?'

With that thought, Jean dashed out of the kitchen and headed for the staircase.

Just as he was about to step on the staircase, a familiar footstep resounded from upstairs.

---(≙≙≙)---