Black & White

Chapter three

Oleksandr
I'm moving to Poland. I don't feel safe here.

Me
What?

Oleksandr
I need to save my family first and then, I'm moving to Poland. I'm leaving this country as soon as I can.

It's seven in the morning. I was supposed to wake up, but I won't. School can wait, but my best friend can't. Not my best friend I grew up with. He'll have to hide his yellow and blue pride for his safety and run away from his nightmare. Oleksandr's poor family lives in Ukraine, now belonging to danger. His messages leave a hole in my heart, and I have to read them twice before believing them. Moving to Poland... This means we might never see each other again.

Me
Hey, let's talk, seriously.

Oleksandr
No, l got things to focus on. I don't have time for it.

Is this a form of goodbye?
I remember him calling me in pain, a pain so strong that I could feel it. His tears were like endless waterfalls. This was just two days ago.

I am trying to accomplish my plan wisely early at 7 in the morning, so I am using a hot wet towel to pour it on my forehead and I am using every single trick possible to seem sick. Now at 7 and half hours, while I am pretending to be sleeping, my Dad is loudly opening the door and I am hurrying up to hide the wet towel before he sees me.

"Why aren't you up, son?"

I don't know if I have good acting skills, but what I know is that they will be useful, no matter what. My mind is now stuck to my best friend.

"I'm not feeling well, Dad... Can I lie down in bed for a bit?"

My dad is looking at me from the door frame, his eyes telling me that he is not convinced. He brings the thermometer to put it in my mouth while he is touching my forehead. I am waiting. Waiting for him to let me be...

His gaze is fixed on me, now noticing a wet puddle under the cover. He is already planning what punishment he'll make to me.

I should have hidden it somewhere else.  I was very stupid to leave it there. I should have thought about it before!

"You are not sick as far as I can see."

I can feel my heart beating faster and I feel like laughing, even if there is nothing funny. A nervous laugh.

He does not find it funny. His anger looks like a cartoonish vision of a bull with steam coming out of its nostrils. Suddenly, he is aggressively holding my legs and pulls them violently. I am bumping on the floor, my bed now empty.

"Ouch, Dad!" I am expressing, in pain.

"Since when do you fake sick to not go to school!?"

I stand up, facing him. No matter how bad he'll react, I won't go there.

"I won't go to school, Dad."

"Oh yeah? Let me show you something that will make you want to go to school", he smirks, probably knowing his trick will work.

"I won't go, Dad, I won't go!"

He takes off his belt, raises it and slaps me with his greatest strength, everywhere. A technique that has been prohibited for a long time, since I was a child. The last time he did this, I was at least eight years old, no more older.

I yell at him to stop, but he is not. He keeps on doing this, and yelling is now useless. It won't make him stop.

"This is what happens when you lie to your father, son!"

Messing with my father wasn't the best idea above all. My sister comes in, looking at me getting slapped and not moving, looking like her feet would be stuck on cement. Her face says talks to me instead of her mouth; she is panicked.

My mother isn't taking more than a minute to join to see what is going on. I never saw her like this. Despite her innocent face, she takes the belt from my dad's hand and slaps his face with it.

"Leave our son alone."
He moans in pain, covering his left cheek with his hand. I'm scared that he'll slap her back, but he never did such a thing. Not with her.
"Don't you dare to do this to him again, or I'll be the one beating you like you did."

My dad looks at me, still angry. "He needed a lesson! Margarita, he just pretended to be sick to not go to school! I can't  just not do anything about this!"

"I don't want to see you using a belt again to Alexei!"
I know she'll always defend her kids, even with the least peaceful method. She proves it right, right now.

It always has to be about lessons with my father. This is always the same justification he uses to defend himself. At least my mother isn't being submissive.

My parents are yelling at each other, so I am slowly getting out of my room, taking my sister's arm to drag her somewhere else until they finish arguing. She is tearing up, almost shaking. Anastasia isn't used to our parents fighting and I admit, me either. "Cover your ears, Anastasia."

I hug her, letting her know that I am her big brother that will protect her.
"I'm scared, Alexei... I don't like to hear them fighting", she says, in a shaky voice.

"That's why I told you to plug your ears, Anastasia. Don't worry, it happens. I don't want you to start your morning sad, okay?"

I am scared too. My parents' divorce seems like a nightmare for all of us. But I am not showing my concern to her, I got to be a model brother. She nods, looking down at her banal white socks, and plugging her ears again. "Are you okay, Alexei? It was pretty intense."

"Don't worry about me, sis. I am okay."

"I remember it hurt a lot", she is talking about the belt. I feel her heartbeat against my chest. It's not a reassuring heartbeat. Hers is fast.

"It was but don't worry, it's just the past now. I count on you to forget about it."

The screams of our parents slowly fade away, now the silence leaving all of us broken. Dad is slamming the door, so hard that my sister and I jump.

"Why is dad so rough to you?"

"I'm going to tell you something. I'm a boy and I'm older. And you, you are a girl, and much more sensitive, so less often Dad behaves the way he does with me to you."

It's now very calm in the house. Nobody is longer screaming. Still, our parent's fight is not forgotten. The only thing we can do is to hope it won't happen again, that's all. We are only teenagers, after all, we have no control over this.

There is already something that bothers her now. I want her to enjoy her first year of teenage without growing up in a concerning environment. My little sister having a memorable teenage life in a rainbow world is what I wish for her. I fear that it's not the case right now, and it won't soon. But I'll be optimistic for her.

"Remember that you are a little soldier, Anastasia. You are a strong solider"

My little sister shakes her head. "I like princess more."

"You are a princess, then. A strong princess."

She nods with confidence, approving the correction I made. This is what I call fraternity love.