Uncle Gary's support

"Val wake up," Adam called tapping her cheeks. Seeing that she was not responding, he pulled the blanket away and called her again, this time louder.

Feeling cold, Val tried pulling up the blanket but couldn't reach it, instead she could hear Adam's continuous calls. She opened her groggy eyes to see her brother besides her. It seems like the little guy did not learn his lesson yesterday .She reached out her hand to catch him but Adam was prepared this time and jumped further away from her bed.

"Sis breakfast is ready," he said laughing at her failed attempt. "You should learn to be grateful you know, look I climbed up the long stairs in order to prevent you from starving but what did I get as a reward? Nothing, instead you are trying to punish me, again," he said looking at her accusingly.

Val rolled her eyes at him as she sat up, because of yesterday's exhaustion, she had slept longer than usual.

"Sleep longer than me in the future and I'll be super grateful," she said heading to the bathroom.

Adam was always an early riser and so after their mother passed away, she started leaving her room door unlocked so that he could enter anytime.

After cleaning up, she walked downstairs and saw that everyone was already up. She felt embarrassed as she was supposed to be the one making breakfast but someone already beat her to it. She was such a bad host.

"Good morning everyone," she greeted, taking a sit next to Adam.

"Good morning," they replied to her greetings.

"Did you sleep well?"  her uncle asked serving her with pancakes and tea.

"Mm, thank you," she said taking a bite of the pancake.

"Wow, this is so tasty," she half moaned. The pancakes were delicious.

"I know right, uncle and I made it," Adam proudly declared himself as one of the family's best chefs.

"Is that so? then you should be making breakfast for us in the future," Val said giving Adam a side glance.

"Sure, I will cook for us in the future." The little guy knows no shame. He was mostly the errand boy in the kitchen but wanted to take most of the credit.

Gary didn't expose him, "let's take a walk after breakfast," he suggested to Adam.

"Mmmm," Adam continuously nodded as his mouth was full.

"Okay no more talking while eating," Val have her order looking at Adam. If they continued talking, he might choke on his food.

After breakfast, Gary and Adam went out for a walk while Val immersed herself in the housework. Maggie had gone out, she said she wanted to visit her friends in  M City. Maggie was a second year student in A University and thus had friends in M City. Her mother went back upstairs to the guest room where she had spent the night with her husband.

An hour later, Gary and Adam got back from their walk. Val was also done with most of the house work.

"Let's go get you cleaned up," she said to Adam who was on Gary's shoulders. "And I thought you guys went for a walk why is it that you are being carried? Does being carried around count as a morning walk?"

"Uncle said that this is how grown ups are carried, I like it," Adam grinned looking so excited. This reminded Val of Adam's concerns from yesterday and she couldn't help laughing.

"Okay you are a grown up, I get that now." So this was what Gary had whispered to him yesterday.She reached out her hands and lifted him from Gary's shoulders.

"Let's have a chat after this," Gary told her as they made their way upstairs. He needed to wash up as well as he, just like Adam, was covered in sweat.

"Okay," her uncle probably wanted to talk about her father's condition which was fine with her. She too wanted to talk to him about it.

Getting to Adam's room, she told him to undress while she went to the bathroom to adjust water temperature. She then called Adam to go and take his bath. Adam had in a while now insisted on bathing on his own, according to him, he was a boy and didn't want girls to see him naked. So mostly she would just prepare a change of clothes for him.

Thirty minutes later, Adam came out of his room looking clean. Val followed closely behind as she cautioned him, "Adam you can go play but do not dirty your clothes otherwise you will be punished this time." It was on a Sunday and Adam wanted to go out to play with friends in the neighborhood. "Also don't get yourself injured you are going to school the day after tomorrow." Adam was a very active boy and occasionally, he would come home after play with mostly knee or hand injuries.

Getting downstairs, Adam ran outside while Val walked towards the sitting room where her uncle was waiting.

"Uncle have some tea," she poured two cups of tea. She gave one to Gary and kept the other for herself.

"Mmm, how are you doing?" he asked taking a sip of his tea.

"Okay," she replied looking down at her cup. "The doctor said that father needs to have a surgery within the next six months otherwise we'll lose him," she said putting down her cup. Her uncle didn't ask her anything yesterday, he was probably waiting for her to tell him on her own.

"I thought he'd said that he will wake up on his own, did something happen?" Gary asked.

Val calmly explained her father's condition to her uncle.

"Six months," Gary muttered to himself. Six months is so little when a person's life is on the line. "How much is needed?" He asked looking at her.

"Two million," she stated. Val had decided to look for a job tomorrow. Since she was planning to take loans, she needed to think of how she was going to pay it back and getting a job was her first option.

Gary didn't say anything for a while. He silently sipped his tea as though he was contemplating something.

"I can raise five hundred thousand but how will we get the rest?" Val stared at her uncle in shock. Although he had about five stores in the capital which were doing relatively well, taking out 500,000 shillings in one go was most definitely going to affect him. Did his uncle want to risk closing down his stores? She had expected him to at most say one hundred thousand.

"Uncle, are you sure?" She asked him. She was hesitating after all she didn't want her uncle to suffer as well.

"Yes, but that's barely a quarter of the money we should figure out how to get the rest," her uncle was willing to go all out for them and she would also do the same.

"Uncle what you are promising is more than enough, I'll figure out the rest," she said to him. "Uncle when all this is over, I'll pay you back," she promised.

"Child we are family this is not a loan," he refused repayment. Since he promised to help his brother then he will go through with it.

Tears welled in Val's eyes, it felt so good to have someone who truly cared.

"Thank you uncle, I'll think of a way to get the rest, we'll save father," she too promised. For Adam's sake, her father must live.

"Okay then, your aunt and I are leaving today, I have told your cousin to stay with you until school reopens.

"Okay, take care uncle," she noticed that he looked tired he even had eye bags. Her uncle was bothered by his brother's condition.

"Hey that's my line," he joked, "don't push yourself too hard, when I get home I'll see if I can get more." Although he was her uncle, he knew that he was more of an outsider and therefore all the weight fell on her shoulders.

At around 2.30pm Val decided to go to the shop. Her uncle and aunt had left before lunch so only she and Adam were the only ones at home. Maggie was yet to arrive and since she couldn't leave Adam alone at home, she took him with her.

The store was a 30 minutes walk from their home and she sometimes walked there but today was hot so they took a motorcycle. Motorcycles were the most common means of transport in M City.

"Hello auntie Mary," Adam greeted the auntie working at the shop. The store was not very busy on weekends and so Mary and Lorna, took turns in managing the store. They were both employed by her mother about four years ago. This weekend, it was Mary's turn and when they arrived, they found her arranging the shelves.

"Adam you are here, come auntie has something for you," Adam always had a big smile on his face when he was with the shop aunties as it had some benefits. Like now, Mary was filling his hands with fruits and he was flattering her with his honeyed words. "Auntie Mary you are the best, Adam loves you the most," he said flattering her. He was obviously enjoying all the love and attention given to him.

"Adam?" A child like unfamiliar voice called. Val lowered her head to see the owner of the voice. It was a young boy, about Adam's age. He looked a bit familiar to her although she couldn't pin point where she had seen him before. His gaze was on the busy Adam who was still buttering Mary.

Adam hearing his name also turned to look at the caller, "Kelly!" He left Mary's side and run towards the little boy.

Kelly? Didn't Adam say that he had made a new friend and his name was Kelly? Now that she looked closely, she realized that this was the boy at the park yesterday. Was he not the one covered in dust just like Adam? Then she remembered that he was with his father. She looked beside Kelly to see a tall, light skinned man who almost had no resemblance to Kelly except the skin color and eye color. Although he hadn't seen the face of Kelly's father from the park yesterday, the man in front of her had the same build.

"Kelly do you want some fruits? Come auntie Mary will give them to us," Adam said pulling Kelly towards Mary. Before she could say anything, Adam and Kelly were already inside the shop picking whatever caught their eyes.

"They know each other?" A rough manly voice sounded on her ears. She looked up to find the man looking at her. He was wearing a dark blue fitting jean trouser with a white T-shirt. Looking at his deep black obsidian eyes, she felt dazed. They were dark and beautiful, just like black shiny orbs. She felt like they were looking straight at her soul.

"Hey," his voice snapped her back to reality. She quickly withdrew her gaze looking everywhere but him. He caught her staring, making her feel embarrassed.

"They met at the park yesterday," she answered ignoring her awkwardness.

"Okay," he said, a small smile playing on his lips.

This made her feel even more uncomfortable. Why was he laughing, did she look funny? To avoid further embarrassing herself, she called Mary to serve him and rushed to the back of the store. She decided to stay there until when he leaves.

When she returned home with Adam, they found Maggie seated at the front steps probably waiting for them. "Have you waited for long?" She asked her. She was their guest and it was not proper to lock her out.

"No, I just arrived," she replied handing her a card, "for you," she said.

She opened it to see that it was an invite to the new-year summit. Did they confuse her with someone else? She double-checked and confirmed that the card was meant for her.

"Who gave this to you?" She asked Maggie feeling surprised. Usually, only the rich and the powerful in the city got these invites so who would invite a broke and jobless girl like her?

"Rachel," Maggie answered her.