Monday 4 August 2014

Love Potion

Jordan had grown up with his two siblings, an older sister and a younger brother. The three of them lived together with his parents in a five room flat. The flat, consisting of three bedrooms, one living room and a balcony with a connected dining area was divided out as such; his parents got one room, his sister got another and he shared the last with his brother. Their family was close to one another and everybody confided in everybody else. Of course there were generation gaps and sibling rivalry, but that was part and parcel of living together. Jordan had been twelve and his sister fifteen at the time the incident occurred. He remembers how weird she had been acting. Not weird in a sense of being unnatural though, she was simply acting the way every fifteen year old female would act when they were 'in love' so to speak.

For the past two months, she had been walking around the house as if in a day dream, not hearing anyone till they repeated her name at least four time. At dinner, she would play with the food on her plate for a full half hour, smiling to herself before she started eating it and would buy a new CD filled with love songs every week. Jordan's parents knew she had a boyfriend. They did not want to probe, knowing that since they had just got attached and they would probably want that time to be for them and them alone. They knew that she would bring him home when they are ready. Jordan's mother was getting curious though. She trusted Carol, knowing she knew how to make right decisions. But as far as she was concerned, no teenage boy would be good enough for the task of being Carol's first boyfriend. Unfortunately, the reason why Carol did not tell her parents was not that she had wanted to wait. Regarding not thinking that any teenage boy was good enough, her mother might have changed her mind about that had she found out the real reason why Carol was not sharing with her what seemed to be the happiest experiences of her life so far.

Jamal was not a teenage boy. Jamal was thirty two. She could not imagine telling her parents that the ring she wore on the chain around her neck was not just any ring. Jamal had given it to her as an engagement ring at their two month anniversary dinner. Jamal was a romantic. He would bring delicious food from his house just for her and would feed her lovingly. He spent on her whims and fancies. Three months later, she told Jordan about what was happening. She told him about Jamal and how they had been together for the past five months. She told him about his age. 'Are you crazy?' He had shouted out loud, his eyes almost bulging out. 'Hallo! He's practically Dad's age!'

Carol rolled her eyes. 'Yeah Jordan, but age has never been an obstacle for love.' 'Still? He is too old for you, sis. Actually since you are crazy enough to even consider marrying this joker, I should be saying you are too young.' 'h shut up, I knew I should not have told you.' 'I'm telling Ma.' Apparently, this possibility had never even occurred to Carol. She jumped at him and pinned him on the floor, holding him down by the arms and looking straight at his face. He finally gave into her due to the sheer factor of pain and, saying that he would not tell. But unable to sleep that night, he stared up at the ceiling. He got up from bed and walked over to his parents room. Waking them up as gently as he could, he told them. After being woken up from her dreams she could not remember, Carol was startled to open her eyes to what seemed like her parents. Jordan had cleverly gone back to his room so he would only have to face her wrath the next day. After three hours of shouting, threats and theories, her parents boiled it down to one thing.

'Listen here Carol,' her father had said, rubbing his temples which were almost visibly throbbing by then, 'if you don't promise to break it off, I will personally withdraw you from school and make you take your 'O' levels privately. You will stay at home where we can see you and you will not go out unless it is with us. You will not see your friends because we won't know whether it's them you are actually meeting and you will not speak to anyone on the phone that even sounds like a man. Now give me that ring around your neck and go back to sleep.' She cried the next day when she broke up with Jamal, telling him what had happened the night before. He was angry beyond belief. In fact, she had never seen him so angry before. He reassured her that while he was sad about having to break up with her, he was not angry with her. It was her parents that made him lose his temper. 'I know, Jamal. I told you. They said you were too old and that I was being stupid and that I was at an age where I should be getting to know more people and all that crap. My dad took the ring. You have no idea how sorry I am, about everything. Yesterday was the worse day of my life.'

Jamal being angry was an understatement. The word 'furious' might have been more appropriate. What right did her parents have to do this? He thought this as he rung his grandmother's doorbell. When his grandmother opened the door, he greeted her, asking her how she was and whether she was busy. She was actually with her elderly friends. They were chatting and laughing away, her usual get together every once a week. But for her favourite grandson, she would do almost anything. She excused herself and gave her full attention to Jamal. The grandmother knew he was engage and that he was waiting for his girlfriend to finish school before they got married. Of course he never told her that she was only sixteen. She had assumed she was in the university and that they would be getting married once she had got her degree. When she asked to meet her, he would simply say he did not want to ask her about things like that now because she was very busy; even he had not met her parents.

He told his grandmother that day that upon finally meeting her parents, they had disapproved of him straight away and that they were not allowing them to get married. He said that they had not even bothered to get to know him and that if he ever went near her again and they found out, she would be locked in the house and never let out. His grandmother was angry as well. She was thinking about the unfair way her grandson had been treated. She told him that she would take care of it and that all she needed was her parents first names and their home address. Three days after the incident at home, Jordan's parents got up in the morning to go to work. Jordan's mother ran to the toilet to throw up. She assumed that something had gone wrong with her stomach because she had not even eaten anything. By the time she had finished, she was so weak that she didn't even want to think about going to work. Her husband tucked her back into bed, kissed her good bye and then left for work. Despite the fact that his mother was sick, Jordan did not sense anything being wrong. He started to get worried only when the same thing happened to his father the next day. He was worried that it was something the family was doing and that soon, they all would be sick.

As far as he knew, stomach problems were not contagious. The thought of something horrible and virus like crossed his mind but he threw the horrid thought out straight away; paranoia was the last thing everybody needed. But the things got steadily worse. Soon, his parents were both sick and because of that, the family was in a state of turmoil. His father had started to find tiny bumps on his skin that looked like tiny boils. Touching them would cause him great pain and even lying down was difficult because of the ones on his back. Obviously, tempers were flying within the household and everyone was shouting at each other. Carol was really upset and she did not know what to do about what was happening in her house. She could not concentrate on anything and she dreaded going home. It came to a point where she could not stand it and she finally dialled the number she had been forbidden to dial, on the public phone downstairs. She told Jamal what had been happening and asked whether they could meet to talk.

When they met that day she had been so happy to see him. She cried when she told him what had been happening at her house and when she started crying, she could not stop. Jamal could not take watching her like that and even though he knew it was a stupid thing to do, he confessed to her the fact that he was the one who had cause all her problems. He told her about his grandmother and that she had special powers. She got up from the park bench where they had been and stood in front of him. Her eyes were filled with both anger and betrayal. She was angry with her parents but she knew what they had done, they had done with good intentions. What his grandmother had done, she had done it out of spite. He had tried to calm her down as she started shouting, saying that he would get his grandmother to reverse the spell she had cast. He apologized over and over again that it was not his fault. Carol turned away and walked over to the side of the road, hailing a taxi. She had never felt so lonely. It took awhile for her parents to get better. She wondered whether he had hesitated in asking his grandmother to reverse the spell. For a whole week, she watched her parents health take a plunge for the worse before their bodies started to heal even remotely.

Strangely, a week later, Jamal came to their house with a fruit basket to enquire about their health. What was more strange was that her parents welcomed him with open arms. her father even called him son-in-law.

No comments:

Post a Comment