Chapter five
"How can I help you Officer?" He grumbled rudely.
Officer? This was something I was going to hate.
Whispers were exchanged between them that couldn't reach my ears. I tried to peep through; but Uncle's tall frame filled the doorway.
Still, I looked at his face everytime to read his reaction.
The one I saw right now made my heart sink to my toes. It was fear…sadness. Regret and shock.
Without thinking, I rushed to him and nudged through until I was glancing up at the Police officer. "Is it about Noah? Where is my brother?"
The Officer looked uncertain of whether or not to answer me.
So I faced Uncle again and repeated the question.
His reaction was worse. He was shaking his head and pulling me into his arms.
But of course I struggled, hitting him severally with my little fists as I demanded where my brother was. He couldn't even look me in the eye.
My plan was to frustrate the answer out of him. And a few seconds later, that was exactly what happened.
"Noah's dead Jeffery," he shouted down to me. "Your brother is dead!"
For a while, I said nothing and had almost believed him. But when I remembered Noah's promise, "I'll never leave you," I frowned and snarled at him. "You are a liar!"
I waited for nothing more before turning out and running into the darkness of the world outside, in search of my brother.
I ignored the men calling out to me and plunged my little figure forward, crying and praying that Uncle was just being a liar as always. Noah couldn't die. I mean it sounded so impossible to even think of.
The paths twisted as I continued; but it didn't waver my determination.
"Noah!" I screamed now and then between tears, half expecting him to rush out from anywhere now, haul me into his arms and tell me he's alright. But it never happened.
Soon after, I sensed smoke slowly begin to fill the air as I reached the road. That was when I realised it'd been years since I reached there.
Police cars were parked randomly with their sirens blaring about in the nighttime.
Residents of the neighborhood were gathered about in groups as spectators. Then I lowered my eyes to study the charred bodies all covered in white drapes. From what the Officers around me discussed, the cause of fire was still very much unknown.
The covered bodies had somehow been identified and labeled. And after I'd searched through and found the words, "Noah Thompson" boldly stamped on the seventh one, I swallowed slowly and staggered back.
A deep part of me tried to convince myself they'd labeled wrongly. So…I squatted before it and pulled the cloth back very sluggishly, nervously.
I flinched suddenly when my eyes caught sight of a burnt black torso and face with liquid drooling out of the charred skin.
That couldn't be my brother!
My smile began to return. If the face had been burnt away, there was still a possibility they'd been wrong about his identity, right?
Until…
In one tight fist of the body, I sighted the exact same kind of necklace around my neck.
And by God, that belonged to Noah. Sadly, I then studied his cloths and recognized it instantly.
When I screamed, everyone turned to me.
"Noah!" I was shaking the body as if I expected it to resurrect right before my very eyes. "Noah…please wake up. Please Noah…"
I felt tears blind me and pour unto the body. "Don't do this to me brother! Noah!"
Police hands clutched me and pulled me slowly away from the body. I continued to shriek and cry even with the consolation they strived so hard to offer.
It was the feeling of loneliness. The feeling of losing every single person you called family in the space of three years. I was alone.
Just when I found everything in one person, God let Max take him away from me.
Vainly, I looked into the dark sky and finally stopped struggling with the pairs of hands around me. But of course, I'd slipped out the necklace from the corpse's grip without notice.
Thenceforth, my actions suddenly froze out of pure shock. In that moment, all sounds and motion around me were drowned in the cold emotion that was bubbling as I watched what now remained of the person that once meant everything to me.
Was I ever going to be happy again, especially alone in the hands of my Uncle?
Or could I ever leave Montana and become that dream boxer? Would I ever forget today?
My emotions began to mess with my thinking in a way I knew I was going to regret later on.
That was it. I was leaving.
***
"It sounds impossible," the man at the head of the circle smiled sadly as he shrugged." With your Uncle. And you just a little boy. How did you leave? "
An exasperated sigh left my lungs as I looked at the ceiling. With the hardest part of my story gone, the images of the subsequent one played in my head.