Chapter 16

Paul rang the doorbell of his dad's house. He knew he could open the door and go in, but he didn't want to breed any form of familiarity between himself and the people he would be dining with. At least, not yet.

It took a few seconds before someone opened the door. It was his stepmother.

"Paul! Hi! It's been a while," she said as she put her arms around him.

"Hi, Doris," he said, hugging her.

"I'm so happy you decided to come, you look different," she said, as she checked Paul out from head to toe.

"I guess," Paul replied, checking himself out briefly.

"Come on, come in," Doris said, showing him to the sitting room.

"Look at me treating you like a guest, the place is all yours," she said, spreading her arms. "We’re waiting for your brother. He's yet to arrive."

Paul could not tell if her smiles were fake or real, but one thing was certain, she knew how to make good smiles.

"Would you like something to drink?" she asked.

"Water."

"Are you sure? We have other drinks."

"Water is fine," Paul replied with a forced smile.

"Okay, I'll be back. The remote is there if you want to watch something on TV," Doris said.

Paul watched her walk away till she was out of sight. He didn't really know how old she was but guessed she was around forty to forty-five years old. She was a light skinned woman who was about five feet and seven inches tall. His friends in high school used to talk about how beautiful she was, whenever she drove himself and his brother to school, he didn’t like that very much.

Paul decided to check the house out. It’d been quite some time since he came to his dad’s house. He remembered they moved into the house about one year before he got his own apartment in a bid to avoid confrontations as much as he could. That was about three years ago, and he could only recall being there about two times after that.

He could see a framed painting of himself and that of his brother side by side by the window while that of his dad and his stepmom, also side by side was somewhere above the wall where the TV was stationed.

Just then, he remembered one of the reasons why he was pissed at everything that had to do with his dad. There was no picture of his mom. He was sure that if he turned the house upside down, he still would not find one. Even though he knew that was a lame reason to be pissed at his dad, he didn’t care. He remembered he once asked his dad where the photo album of his wedding with his mom was.

“Why should I know where that is?” was his reply.

Paul was looking at the head of a horned deer, hung on the wall when his stepmom returned and stood by his side.

“Looks good, right?” she asked.

Paul only nodded.

“I saw something like it in a movie and I thought to myself, why the hell not, so I told your dad about it, and he got it for me,” she said, sounding excited.

Paul smiled.

“Anyway, I’m not done with the preparations. Make yourself at home while we wait for your brother and your dad.”

“My dad isn’t at home?” he asked.

“No. Emergency meeting,” she said, smiling.

This time, Paul could tell the smile was fake.

“Okay,” Paul replied.

Paul took his attention back to the lifeless deer. This time, he only shook his head.

“That could have been put to better use instead of hanging on someone’s wall,” he said to himself.

Paul went back to sit down. He picked the bottle of water that Doris had dropped on a stool in front of him and drank from it, ignoring the cup that she brought along with it.

He returned the bottle back to the stool, replaced its lid and brought out his phone from his pocket. He had only started using his phone when the door opened, and his brother came in.

“You’re here,” Pete said, smiling.

Paul said nothing.

“I was so sure you weren’t going to show up, why did you change your mind?” Pete asked.

“Probably to congratulate you on being popular,” Paul replied with a smug smile on his face.

“What are you talking about?” Pete asked.

“I was going through my feed on twitter when I came across something interesting,” Paul said as he went through his phone.

After some seconds, he held the phone out to Pete who watched the video on Paul’s phone with a look of horror on his face.

“Fuck me!” he said out loud.

“Isn’t that dad’s secretary?” Paul asked.

“Not anymore,” Pete replied.

“And that slap,” Paul said, shaking his head, “you must have done something really-”

“Let’s not talk about it,” Pete interrupted, as he sat down.

“Does Dad know about this?” Pete asked.

“How am I supposed to know,” Paul replied. “Plus, he’s not around.”

“Where is he?” Pete asked.

Paul shrugged.

“And mom?” Pete asked.

“Dead,” Paul said dryly.

“Come on, you know who I'm talking about,” Pete said.

Paul didn’t reply.

“Okay, where is Doris?” Pete asked slowly.

“Kitchen,” Paul replied.

“Jackass,” Pete said as he walked in the direction of the kitchen.

Paul stood up, went to the TV, picked up the remote and turned the TV on. He clicked on a movie streaming application and was surfing through the collections when his brother returned.

“New movies please,” Pete said. “You can go back to watching old and monochrome movies when you get back home.”

Just then, they heard the sound from the engine of a vehicle very close to the house.

“Probably Dad,” Pete said.

“Yeah. Probably. You should help him get his bag or whatever, inside the house,” Paul said, taunting Pete.

“Fuck you!” Pete said angrily.