Way And Direction

Chapter 24

Everyone sat in the lounge and there was a pin drop silence. It was already late but no one felt like sleeping. No one felt like doing anything.

Everything just felt...... empty.

Kiaan played with the loose strands in his jean and he was thinking of ways suppress his grief to make the mood a bit lighter. There was not much he could do in this situation, but he found it a good way to tuck in his emotions by diverting his attention to thinking.

Dahlia, Sarita and Susheel sat with their gazes fixated on the floor. They did look up to see the emotionless faces of Ellie and Sizwe.

It was true that Ellie really knew how to control Sizwe. At the hospital, when he had the sudden depressive episode, she was the only one who could calm him down. They were afraid he might think about the deaths and end up doing something terrible again.

The sadness in the air circulated mostly around Richard, Ellie and Sizwe. Richard couldn't bear to see Ellie in such a state, and Richard himself was a person who had an inability to control his emotions.

Ellie's fingers were clenched tightly in a fist and she hit her thigh with it continuously. Sizwe constantly looked around and was digging into the skin of a wound on his hand.

They wanted to say something, they wanted to help, but they didn't know how and what to say.

Sarita looked over at Sizwe and noticed the stream of blood that was flowing from his wound. He just looked around and dug into it, more intensely. He seemed oblivious to what was happening to his hand. The pain in his hand was of no importance to him.

She ran to him and shouted, "Sizwe! Stop it! Look at what you're doing!" She took his hand and quickly asked Susheel to get first aid for him.

He snapped out of his constant looking around and checked what he had done. Sarita expected him to have a more shocked reaction, but all he did was blink and look away. He didn't seem to care about what he had done.

Ellie convinced him not to do anything like that again, after Sarita told her what had happened.

Richard felt left out, because he tried to talk to her too, but she didn't say anything but convince Sizwe.

Having overlooked it, he realised that they did lose very important people from both of their lives. Ultimately, they would understand the grief with each other than with anyone else.

Richard just hugged Ellie and she said, "Take me home please."

Everyone looked at her, satisfied that she said something, but not at what she said.

"Dear, you and Sizwe should stay here tonight. It wouldn't be advisable for you two to go home and stay alone right now," Susheel said warmly.

"Yeah that's right. You guys really should stay. Russ?" Kiaan asked him to try and convince Ellie.

Richard patted her head slowly and in a warm voice he said,"Poppy, stay please. It's not a good idea for you to go home now."

She woke up from Richard's arms and looked at the floor.

"Please take me home. I really want to. Yes, Dad won't be there for me but-" she wiped her tears, "I just want to go."

Richard looked around and saw concerned faces. He got up and told her, "Okay but I'll stay with you."

She nodded slightly and motioned for Sizwe to go along with them.

As she walked out she looked back with an  emotionless expression.

"Atleast now you don't have to live with the stigma of having the person that killed your husband right in front of you."