The Lion King In The Human World Part 3

One Big Time Guilt Trip Coming Up.

TAKA(he's dreaming about his memories)

I looked up at Mufasa's face. We had just heard that our new adoptive parents were killed in a crash. I was about ready to cry, but Mufasa knelt down next to me and held me. "It's going to be okay Taka," he said, "I'm right here and I won't go anywhere. I'm always going to be with you. I promise."

I could hear the orphanage director talk to Mufasa from behind a closed door. "You have got to stop running away Mufasa," she said, while also sounding like a different woman and three other men at the same time, "It's hard enough to find you a good family, but your running away is only making it worse. Stay with your new family."

"What about Taka?" Mufasa asked, "He's my real family and you're making me leave him behind. If it's hard finding a family for me, it's got to be even harder to find a family for him. If the family won't take Taka, then they can't keep me. I'm not leaving my brother."

"Stop being ungrateful," the director(s) shouted, "These families are willing to take in a child out of the goodness of their hearts."

"Stop making them sound so nice," Mufasa said, "I heard them, they said that they would never take Taka. They would rather split up brothers than inconvenience themselves. Don't you realize you're telling me to think about myself? Isn't that called being selfish? Aren't I not suppose to do that?"

"Think about your future," the director(s) said.

"I am," Mufasa told them, "And I'm also thinking about Taka's, like a good big brother should."

Mufasa held my hand as I took my first steps after being in a wheelchair for so long. I nearly fell and he caught me before I lost my balance completely. "Easy Taka," he said to me kindly, "Easy. There's no hurry. I don't have work tonight so just take your time with this. One foot in front of the other Taka, one foot in front of the other."

Mufasa held me as I shivered in fear from the thunderstorm. "I got you Taka," he told me, "Don't worry, no lighten bolt is getting past your big brother."

"Baby," a boy in our large orphanage room snapped, "Let him grow up."

Mufasa glared at the boy. "Care to say that again?" he asked threateningly. The boy shut up. "Good," Mufasa told him, then he turned back to me and whipped away my tears.

"I don't understand it!" I screamed, throwing my book as far away from me as possible, "Why does it matter if I do math?"

Mufasa grabbed my book and my pencil. "Taka," he said, "People need math for their everyday lives. Just look at our directors, they use math daily. Right Miss Potter?" This Miss Potter nodded and held up a sheet of paper with a bunch of figures. "See," Mufasa told me, "Let me see, where did you go wrong?" He grazed over my book, "Aha," he said at last, "I see it. Taka, you've skipped the number six. So that makes it 75 apples that Carl sold to Mickey."

Mufasa walked with me home from school. A group of boys approached us. "Well, well, well," one of them said, "If it isn't the pauper and the leaper. What are you two doing here? Didn't I tell you not to go this way King?"

"Didn't I tell you that I wasn't going to listen?" Mufasa asked, "My brother and I have as much right as you to be here. Just because your dad's the mayor and we're orphans doesn't mean that you can boss us around David."

This David chuckled. "Some mouth for a pauper," he said.

"Mufasa," I whispered to him, "What's a pauper?"

"Someone who's very poor," Mufasa told me, "But we're not paupers Taka. We don't have the most money, but we're better off than a lot of people."

David chuckled. "For now," he said, "But just you wait King, you'll be back on the streets where you belong soon enough. You and your dumb brother."

Mufasa's hands clenched into fists. "What did you just call my little brother?" he asked, his voice going deep.

"Dumb," David said, "As in stupid, a moron, an idiot. Need I go on?"

Mufasa slammed David against the dumpster in the alley he and his friends had been standing in front of. "No," Mufasa growled, "You can pick on me all you like, but when you drag my little brother into this, I'm not going to stand for it."

"My dad will ruin you," David told him, clearly shaken by the fact that Mufasa would do this.

Mufasa only chuckled. "Just try," he told David, "Then everyone in school will know that you needed your dad to fight your battles for you, that you weren't man enough to do anything about this yourself. And I'm sure that the whole making fun of a child will go over great with the ladies, won't it?"

David gulped. Mufasa set him down. "Remember this the next time you and your friends want to make fun of my brother." Mufasa walked back to me, David's friends backing away from him.

I woke up from my strange dream. Do people normally get dreams which are pure memories? Anyway, it was a strange dream.

I guess I had forgotten what Mufasa did for me. Sure it was nice how he wouldn't leave me alone, always stood up for me, and helped me, but he really just abandoned me once I turned eighteen. You would think that all that time with me depending on him, he'd realize that I would need time to slowly transition.

I felt something I had never felt towards my brother before. Thankfulness. He gave a lot for me, but he still withheld his money from me when I got older. I had to make him pay.

What was this awful pit in the bottom of my stomach? It's sudden and nasty. I pressed a hand against it, hoping to make it go away. But it didn't. What in the world is that?