The Vaticinator

12. The Vaticinator

“Okay,” Aakir says, “let me get this straight.”

Everybody and I literally mean everybody in the house looks at him as he suddenly gets up and starts pacing the length of our huge kitchen.

“You’re saying,” he says, looking at Jennifer, “that you left me inside the groove of a tree, fearing that the therians following us will kill me. And you didn’t look for me because they were keeping tabs on you?”

“Those therians were specifically looking for you.” Jennifer says, seated at the head of the island and looking at Aakir, “I couldn’t leave you out in the broad daylight at someone’s doorstep, while those therians were lurking around. I had instilled enough repellant in you to keep therians from stumbling upon you. It did take me five days to return-”

“Five days.” Terry uncle deadpans.

“Those therians were keeping track of us and we already had Neal to hide. I couldn’t reveal the identity of my family to those therians by blindly leading my entourage in search of Aakir!”

“Tell me, Jennifer,” Terry uncle begins, “How many members of your family are alive now?”

“Terry.” Father warns.

“You’re going to mock me for my dead family?” Jennifer challenges.

Rufina aunt snaps her head at her, “We are not mocking you for your dead family, Jennifer.” She snaps, “We are mocking you for ignorantly assuming that Aakir’s dead without even putting much effort to look for him. We hadn’t exactly been discreet during reporting the police department about Aakir and formally adopting him.”

Jennifer scoffs, “What part of ‘therians keeping tabs on us’ you don’t understand? My family was literally handicapped for three months straight. Obviously James’s-I mean, Aakir’s mother couldn’t take it. She wanted to look for Aakir. The moment we started taking noticeable steps to look for him, my family died, Rufina. Aakir’s mother died. They died because even our unobtrusive measures like simply asking a fellow citizen about an infant weren’t gone by unnoticed. And though David and I managed to wipe out the clan that was hunting us, we couldn’t risk ourselves more in fear of more therians like them. I have been through hell to keep David and Neal alive in that year, Rufina, and all the following years, for that matter. Ignorantly looking for Aakir could have led to our deaths and that includes Aakir’s too,” her eyes start brimming with unshed tears, “I think my decision to remain alive and keep whatever was left of my family alive was a wise one.”

David, sitting right next to Jennifer, rubs her arm to provide comfort as silence lingers. Jennifer wipes her eyes with a tissue, smears of her kohl slightly spreading around the edges, “Besides,” she goes on, preventing herself from breaking down, “I had left James…Aakir, at the border. So, I anyways had two towns to scout for him. I am not ashamed to admit that I couldn’t even scout a single of those towns. You can criticize me all you want but I feel proud that Neal and David are healthy and sitting by my side.”

All of my family finds something interesting to look at apart from Jennifer. It’s obvious they do not approve of Jennifer’s actions but somehow I sympathize with her. I really can’t imagine going through what she is describing. And she doesn’t even look that old. She must be a teenager when all of this must have been conspiring, probably younger than me.

My father clears his throat, “I am sorry, Jennifer.” He says, breaking the odd silence, “I will not say I understand what you went through because I probably don’t, but believe me when I say that you have my sympathies.”

“About time.” David murmured, sighing, “Mr. Lichinsky,”

“Call me Nik.”

“Nik, thank you.” David looks at everyone around, “I don’t know what you all are thinking but I’ll be really happy if you could show a little empathy. We were mere kids, not even mature therians,” he says looking at a stoic Jennifer, “We did what we thought was best according to the circumstances.”