INVESTIGATING THE TRUTH

"Wow Ricky, this was great."

"I know buddy. Everything I did was high quality. Even photography."

"Yeah, yeah. Except for your actual farm work though."

"Shut up, or I won't take these pictures anymore."

"Hahaha yeah, yeah. Thanks so much though Ricky. You know, for doing this."

"Thanks is cheap. Just buy me a new roll of films, you got it." I just smiled and nodded as I skimmed through the pictures. Ricky turned serious suddenly. "Are you okay though, Sammy?"

"What are you talking about? I'm good. It's already a month, and there's no burn anymore. The burn marks are there but, we can say it's tattoo or something."

"No you stupid kid, I can see your wounds are healing. I'm not blind. I'm talking about this. The pictures, the case reports, the autopsy. You're only six, ya know. You may act like an adult, but YOU are still a child."

I am touched by Ricky's concern and sympathy, plus his loyalty was astounding. If he wanted, he could just colluded with my mom and sell the land on my behalf, and profit of the money. And, with the insane story I told when I first woke up, they could have easily deemed me mentally unfit, and sold the land. Thank God for Ricky.

Yeah, they tried that old 'the smoke must have cause you to hallucinate' trick on me. When I first truly woke up, the sheriff deputies came to get my statement. A few days later, the sheriff himself came and said that there were no signs of any intruders. Even the arson inspector said that the fire was an accident. The propane tank leaked and exploded.

I wanted to protest. I wanted to yelled at them. You killed my parents! and all that protagonist bullshit lines. But I controlled myself. This is the real world. The good guys always lost. To beat the bad guys, you must also be a bad guy. You just had to make sure you do bad things to bad people only.

"I'm not fine Ricky. They killed my dad after all. But if I'm emotional, the work will be left undone. So, I have to willed myself not to cry, and focus on the task at hand. Avenging dad's death." Ricky's face looked guilty all of a sudden. So I added, " I promise you. Once this is all over, we're gonna get some ice cream, put on a whole series of Danny Phantom, and cried together, alrite?"

The signs of guilt disappeared from Ricky's face. "Hey fuck you boy. I don't cry okay. A cowboy never cried."

"Uuuu, very tough indeed. Although, I remember a certain cowboy cried after being rejected by Jenny Ortega. Jenny even had to console that cowboy. Right after rejecting the cowb...OOOWWWW!"

Ricky pressed a cold ice on my tender wounds. "If you don't shut up, I'll burn you myself."

I laughed, then Ricky laughed too. A break from all these emotional turmoil swirling up inside me.

Ricky left for work, and I was left alone with my thoughts. For a kid who just lost his dad, the second time around, alone with thoughts is like pumping exhaust smokes inside a well sealed car. It's sufocating.

Not wanting to be with the thoughts no more, I opened the case files again. I could not thanked my dad's lawyer enough for the help in obtaining the case files.

I almost threw the report in disgust. It was full of fabrication. If this wasn't a hospital, I would have broken everything in here.

The fable case file of my dad's demise began with the cause. Apparently, the gas pipe had sprung a leak, and when my dad was about to lit his cigar in bed, the fire from the lighter ignited the case, and burned the whole house to a crisp. Which was ridiculous. This is straight up 9/11 bullshit again. If the gas could filled up the ENTIRE house, that it reached the second floor, the whole fucking house would blew up. Not took its time burning away.

Then, there's the fucking autopsy report. I, saw my dad getting beat up by my own two fucking eyes. Yet, what did the report say, no apparent physical trauma. Seemingly my dad, after a mountain of torture, died peacefully in his sleep. I didn't even get to see his body. I just showed up to his cremation. Yeayy. At least when he killed himself, I get to see him one last time. I don't know how the fuck is this gonna be Easy Life, because it wasn't easy.

I took a deep breath, and exhaled. And calmed myself down. This was my fault. I did not think things through. If I prepared contingencies, this could have been avoided. I'm the one who messed with my mom's plan, I'm the one who indirectly convinced dad not to sell the farm, hence dad indirectly was in the line of fire, pardon the pun. It's hard to accept that the hardship in one's life is one's own fault, but I ran away before from taking responsibilities. I will not do the same thing again.

With my resolve newly strengthened, I began my own investigations. The house was already leveled, so any evidence would have been destroyed. Not that it would matter anyway, since the whole town is colluding with the mayor and my mom. Even the doctor said that my bruise and cuts were just from the fall. A hypocrite oath if you ask me.

I studied everything again. The case file, the additional photos Ricky took, the dockets on the suspects I had my dad's lawyer put together for me. I jotted everything in the notebook. Trying to find the actual truth in the matter, I know they killed my dad, I know they wanted the land, I just need to figure out why. Why they did what they did would set out the course of action I need to take for my revenge. That's what it said in the ELAR system. Easy Life, is not because things would suddenly becomes easy, it's because knowledge will make them easy.

I put down my pencil. What my teacher once said was true, you will understand things better when you made your own notes. Coz it was now all laid out to me. The motive, the person backing the mayor and my mom, the reason why the fucking farm was so fucking important that they'd kill my dad for it.

Having known everything, having had the truth in my grasp, fear invaded my entire being. The farm was not just the target of a greedy spouse, or a corrupt mayor. If this large of an organisation wanted the farm, then not only me, but Ricky and all the farm workers would be at life threatening risk. Maybe I should just quit. Maybe I should just give them what they wanted. At least, the people important to me would be safe.

Fuck all that, my brain screamed at me. And I agreed, if they successfully established base there, then nobody's safe. The violence, the corruption, the poison on the community, it will all be over. Only I know the truth, and I will, for once in my fucking miserable life, see things through to the end.