310: Alfred and Clara

🥀thanking Kenyas for the peaceful elections, 🌹

They were sent into the house.  Clara was afraid to leave Damien but he assured her that everything is going to be fine. She didn't know who they wanted her to meet but she hoped that this meeting will go as smoothly as possible. She felt nauseated again and couldn't help it, she asked for some air and her mother quickly opened the window for her and she pulled her head out and puked her guts out.

"I am sorry, I am a little bit nervous. About this, I feared for the worst and I didn't know how you guys are going to react. I mean I have been avoiding you guys for years. I know I had to face it this time."

Her mother smiled and looked at her, she hugged her and let her lean on her shoulder, and her father held her hands tightly as they headed to their home. They knew they didn't do their daughter any good by leaving her out while they mourned the disappearance of their son. They were lost when their son was lost.  Clara didn't blame them for anything.  Right now she understands how it must have felt for them to lose their son at that age. He was everything that they wanted. They had been with him for almost eighteen years when he went to study in the Savannah and suddenly disappeared from school. They launched every investigation but none of them gave them the closure they needed. Clara would silently celebrate his birthday. As much as he only saw his face and he would hold her while she was young, he knew he was a good brother. 

They arrived at the house, Davids and Daniella were busy chatting with Clara's aunt, she was happy that Davids was finally free and she was living her life. She congratulate her for being confident and never losing faith in what she was doing. 

Claire was welcomed into the house, her parents showed her every part of the house. She looked at the walls but knew they were changed. The white color was replaced with cream and some blue color and the walls had pictures of every member of the family. She was surprised that they had her high school graduation picture on the wall as well as her college graduation picture. She was happy. She thought that they didn't want to keep in touch with her, they had their reasons. 

They feared that maybe, she will get lost the same way her brother got lost, they wanted her to be happy with what she chose to do. She was very good at her work and they didn't want to ruin any of it.

She stood there, watching every moment of her life on the walls of her parent's house. She knew they neglected her, but she didn't have any bad blood with them, they were going through hard times she didn't understand, she felt they were all focusing on her elder brother than also looking at her. 

She saw all her birthday pictures, taken of her. The same pictures her aunt used to take and make sure they were taken at the correct angle. They were placed in some small college frame.

The sixteen-birthday picture had, Damien, Davids, and Daniella all together. There were also the prom pictures from Damien and Davids time, which was the best prom but on the day of their prom, they never got to attend. It was the day Daniella was pregnant and had to juggle between school and her pregnancy. Clara was there to make sure everything was fine. Mirah had to look after her and didn't care about payment. After they got a job, they focused on her and paid her handsomely.

After high school, there was a lesser picture of her. Not until her graduation. Looks like they had hired a photographer to take a picture of her and she didn't know about it. There were also pictures of her and the two twins together. 

Clara cried looking at everything on the wall. Everything brought sad memories to her. She wanted to cry, laugh or feel guilty but her parents told her she can do whatever she wants. If she doesn't like the pictures on the wall then she can say and they will bring all of them down.

She smiled. She knew today was the day she changed everything. She was ready to smile at her parents again. She has never seen them smile this big.

Her mother and father got hold of her and made her stand in the living room, her friends were behind her. Damien was there to hold her hands. She was sweating and Damien feared that she might be having malaria.

                "We will get a doctor after this, quickly okay?"

Clara wanted to nod but was surprised by the man standing in front of her. He was tall and had these unique features but his face was unique to him.  Though, he thought he had seen him somewhere, at the same time she didn't think so.

                    "Clara, meet Alfred, Alfred, Clara."

Damien looked back at Davids and Daniella.

"Do you think that is the man they want her daughter to marry or what? I hate competition and I will leave right now, wait do you think?"

Davids held his head and made it look the other way. Damien felt a ball in his throat and he feared that Clara's parents had another suitor for her. He looked keenly at Alfred, he had dirty blond hair and glittering eyes like a girl.

"Are You sure, he is not gay, if they are trying to impose this man on her, this is the time I wish I could have made her pregnant, what do you think guys?"

"Maybe I am fucking pregnant with the way I am  puking, that is my brother and they are not forcing me to marry anyone, I would have jumped out of this house and carried you with me, can you shut up and let me process the man who is being introduced to me?"

Damien and the team looked at the man being talked about. They couldn't believe they we seeing Clara's brother for the first time.  Clara was also shocked by the distinct features that this man had. He doesn't seem to be aging even a bit. His skin is so unique, it's like he has been on another planet.

"Okay, first question, what name did I call you when I was five?"

Clara felt this was not her brother. Alfred had forty blonde hair but he didn't have the distinctive features that sje is seeing. She knew questions are going to change everything. The man looked at her and smiled, Clara was not entertaining any of this. She feared that the man in front of his parents might be an imposter.

"You said Fed, then I had to teach you to say Freddy but mum said that will mean Fredrick so she suggested we use, Alfy which you found it hard to pronounce."

Clara was not satisfied, she looked at him again. And looking at the wall, she saw the shoes that his brother bought her before he disappeared. 

       "What do you know about this picture?"

Alfred looked at the picture again. 

"That was your fifth birthday. I couldn't find anything for you, so, I got those shoes for you. They were expensive but I used my savings to get you, the dress you wore, mum had picked the smaller one and you were chubby so I had to get a new one for you. As for the hair band that was used to tame your blonde hair, I was given for free after the shopkeeper thought I looked cute."

Clara was finding it hard to understand any of these. How comes his brother is alive after all these years? He looked nothing like the man who held her when she was five.

She looked at herself and remembered one thing she knows her only brother would know about.

"Tell me one unique thing about me. Something that only my brother would know about?"

"You always wanted to go to the veteran on the White House and I lied to you about that house belonging to the witch so that you don't go to unknown places. Later you realized he was not a witch and you started enjoying him telling you stories about the war. At age five you sipped Dad's beer that was in the cup because he had to attend to something. You were crying thinking that it was something bad that he forced you to drink, but you took it. You slept for two days without waking up and mum cried herself to sleep blaming dad for leaving the bottle. When you woke up you had to be induced again to make sure you didn't have a lot of alcohol content in your body. You used to throw broccoli down and lie that you have eaten it."

Damien had to tell Clara to stop because the man standing in front of them was her brother and everything he was saying was related to that. 

"But where were you all those years? You went away, mum and dad were worried about you. I had to leave them because all they did was cry about you. Mum drowned herself in depression. I had to do bad things to my friend to help in search of you?"

Alfred moved towards her and hugged her tightly. He knew that he had missed Clara his whole life and he was yet to tell them the top.