Loose Relationships
- Zabrina Q.
- Jan 23, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 29, 2019
Click!
"Zi, you gonna get your face off the screen yet? Yeesh, you've been on long enough for you to clean your sty." Michael's voice preceded him into the computer room. Zizi was sitting at the computer responding to her email about the next music group meeting.
Something in Michael's voice annoyed her today. It wasn't any different from the usual rude tone, though. Perhaps it was because it broke the happy light she felt from talking to her new friends. In any case, she wasn't in the mood.
"Go run up an alley," Zizi responded in kind. "Maybe you'll find your biological mom there. Besides, Mr. I-know-what-you-should-be-doing," She pushed back the chair. "I was just leaving." With as much indifference as she could conjure, Zizi stood up and walked towards the door.
Almost before Zizi had left the chair, Michael was occupying it.
"Finally. Now go clean your room."
Forgetting her indifference, Zizi huffed under her breath, "So rude," before stomping out of the computer room towards the girls' bedroom.
There was a toilet paper roll lying on the floor. To Zizi, it's only purpose was for throwing across the room. And so, a white stream flowed across the room and planted itself on one of the beds.
"Gah! Of all the boys for brothers, I had to have him! My room is not a mess! Everything has its perfect pla--!" A banana peel was on the floor and consequently, Zizi slipped on it and landed on her bum.
"Well," Gathering her thoughts. "That was a defense mechanism against nosy brothers. And besides, I'm not the only one who lives in this room!"
"When you're done, mom left a message for you on the desk," Michele said without taking her eyes from the pages of her book.
Zizi walked out of the room to her mom's desk. There was a small note there with her mom's handwriting. It read:
"Found a job. Michele, you, and Adaline can make dinner tonight. Hot dogs + sauerkraut in the fridge.
Love,
Mom"
A job was good. Zizi couldn't complain about that. She walked back to her room, completely forgetting her anger just a moment before. She asked Michele where Adaline was and learned that she was outside playing with the younger boys, Ezra and Nathanael. At least, that's the last Michele knew.
Just to be sure, Zizi walked out and called them.
"Adaline! Nathanael! Ezra!"
"Yeah?" A distant shout.
"Come in and wash up!"
In a short moment, two dirty creatures appeared in front of her.
"Where's Ezra?" Zi asked.
"He was here a moment ago," Adaline carelessly answered.
"Where'd you last see him?"
Adaline shrugged, "I don't know. We were just playing in the puddle. He must've walked off."
Zizi sighed. A missing toddler wasn't something she wanted to deal with right now.
"You guys go wash up. I'll find him in a bit." Zizi ran off around the house. Adaline and Nathanael obeyed their orders.
"Ezra! Ezzie!" Zizi ran.
"EZ! RA! BALINSKI!" She shouted.
"Where are you?!" Her breath gave out.
Minutes later, Adaline and Nathael came back outside to help Zizi find Ezra. A search was made inside the house, then around the house. There was no red-headed toddler playing with the trucks, no sound of laughter out by the puddle. Every place where a toddler could be was searched. The only place left was the woods.
Zizi was beginning to panic. They had been searching for almost 20 minutes now. Usually Ezra was a good kid and would come when called -- unless something detained him. In her moment of panic, Zizi decided to swallow her pride and enter the computer room again. Michael was still sitting at the screen.
"Michael, I can't find Ezra anywhere." Zizi tried to leave out any hint of panic in her voice.
"He's somewhere." Was the monotone reply. This unwavering response lit a bonfire in the girl's eyes. Didn't he care at all about anything?
"Michael! Please!" Without caring about dignity or pride, Zizi allowed urgency to saturate her plea and reproach. "For once consider someone else besides your own selfish pig-figure! We looked all around the property and we can't find Ezra anywhere. Don't you care? Don't you care?!"
Whether it was the urgency in Zizi's voice, or that her brother realized the gravity of the situation, Michael took his eyes off the computer screen for the first time and looked at his sister. She really was a mess. She had dirt splattered all over her from running through the mud. He could feel her anger against his indifference through the tears in her eyes. He'd never seen her so worried before.
"Calm down, Zi. Calm down. I'll come out and help. Where's mom?"
Zizi let out a quick sob. But she felt a little better now that it looked like Michael was really paying attention.
"She -- she found a job."
Michael inhaled deeply, "Alright, let's go. Get Michele to help. Keep Adaline here to watch Nat. Make sure you emphasize to her that it's her duty to watch him."
Zizi nodded. Now they were getting somewhere. And a strange feeling met Zizi concerning her brother. She felt that she could trust him and could obey his commands. She even felt sorry for her earlier resentment. Was this respect? Admiration?
Many more minutes had passed. It had been almost an hour since Zizi told Adaline and Nathanael to wash up. Two beings were sleeping under an oak tree together. One was a scruffy, large dog that curled itself around the smaller being as if to protect it. The smaller being was the missing red-headed toddler.
Ezra woke up and rubbed his eyes. He had heard someone calling his name. He heard it again, distant and far off, but it was his name alright.
"Myy-coo!" He lifted his voice. "Thee-thee!"
Michele, Zizi, and Michael were scanning the woods, using their radios to keep track of each other.
"Michael, I think I heard something."
"My-coo! Thee-thee!"
"I heard it again! Did you hear that?"
"Roger. I'm headed towards the sound."
Zizi took off before the words were fully translated across the radio. She ran, she called, and she ran.
"Thee-thee!"
There he was, standing beside a scraggled mastiff, no less scraggly himself. Zizi scooped Ezra up in her arms and sat down against the oak. She buried her face into his fine red hair and her eyes closed in relief.
Michael found Zizi there asleep. The mastiff lay at her feet and Ezra was softly stroking her arm. A feeling that Michael hadn't felt in over three years overwhelmed him. Three years.
Ezra climbed out of Zizi's lap without waking her. Michael knelt beside her and gathered her form gently into his arms and walked back to their house.
His heart was touched by an angel.
~+~
The comic strip will come out someday.
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