Raised by a Gangster

Chapter 13 | Gumberry Island

Keywords:

Op spray: pepper spray but with spirit.

•Sanusi

"Where's Bala?" Surayya asks

"He's in the arboretum."

"Did he tell you he has a lady friend he has interest in?"

"No." I laugh "He's getting me a bonsai tree."

"Oh. So anything I should know before you go back?"

Najma passes, holding the edge of her dress with her right hand. She refuses to look at us, from the looks of things she's angry about something or at someone. One of us maybe? Me, maybe? I thought she'd forgiven me for missing the herika party.

"Aunty Najma." Surayya calls with a wide smile on her face, dipping her hands in the pockets of her hoodie.

She stops and turns but doesn't move closer to us "Surayya."

"I couldn't find you yesterday. I had so much to tell you about school before I leave."

"Next time." She waves, scrunching her nose as a way of showing she's being bothered and continues to wherever she was headed.

Surayya looks at me "Have I offended your Mrs?"

"I don't think so. She's just angry that Bala won't give her the passcode to the detachment room." I think. But I do not tell her that since she's going back to school today. She needn't know I've been fighting with Najma and that she's refused to speak openly about her feelings like a normal human being.

"What's in there anyways?"

"It's better if you don't know." Dismembered body parts of the troubled.

"Tell me now or I find out behind your back."

"Stay away from there."

"Fine." She opens her tub of lip balm and swoops a small amount with the flat top surface of her finger to her lips and she rubs them against each other to shine once more and she pouts for measure.

Bala is back, smiling for Nom re Papa K-knows-why with a nicely trimmed bonsai tree cradled in his arms like a baby.

"Thank you Ba." Surayya claps and snatched it off his hands.

"Be careful." He hands her a tiny scissor "To remember your old folk by."

She nods appreciatively. I and Bala form a protective wall of shoulders joined to hers and we walked together with her in the middle.

We reach the parking lot and Bala takes the tree from her and we enter the back seat while he stays in the front seat. The drive to the dispatch ship was a total of three hours before we board the ship and it transports us to Bunisa in less than twenty minutes because this ship was of a new technology that pushed the boat 80mph. Queen Nana really outdid herself this time. I was excited for this because I didn't like traveling by air even if she'd provided us with different prototypes for her private jets.

This would be the first trip we encountered in a long time without being attacked at sea or anywhere but that didn't make me any calmer, I was even preparing for I knew a bigger attack was finding it's way to the door of my palace.

****

"Bye. I'll miss you two."  Surayya drags the box out of the car and drops the tree in a basket.

Bala nods and I answer for us "We'll miss you too Su. Don't cause any trouble. Read too!" We stay at the entrance waving without moving outside of it.

She hugs me,  waves at Bala and he touches her hand lightly then she walks away and we start the car to stop at the Bunisari royal house to pick some flowers since we'd dropped Surayya to school. We were free to handle our work before getting on a ship to Gasodi to get our payment for the last shipment there.