Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 5

4 years ago

Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 5

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She paced her bedroom back and forth wondering how next she was going to mistreat her nephew. If there was one thing Juliet hated about her husband, it was his authoritative nature. Gosh, she really wished she could somehow have him wrapped around her finger and make him dance to her tune but Donald was too good a husband so his love towards her made up for his bossy attitude which got on her very last nerve.
It had been over two weeks since Lubesha had turned up at her doorstep and from the look of things, her family was stuck with him. Mistreating him was the best solution according to Juliet. Maybe one day he’d grow tired of being treated like a doormat and would just run away from her house and go become a street kid.
Oh how much she awaited that day. But for now, she had work to do.
Juliet yelled her maid’s name and the scared maid rushed to the bedroom. “You called me, ma’am?”
“No..it’s your dead grandmother calling you from the grave cause she wants you to go keep her company by joining her. Apparently, you’ve overstayed your welcome on mother earth,” she sarcastically snapped. “Of course I called you!”

The maid just stood in the doorway with her head bowed, she was accustomed to her boss’ unreasonable outbursts.
Juliet said, “Am putting you on paid leave.”
The young lady couldn’t believe her ears. Paid leave? “Really? Wow, thanks.” “Let’s just say today’s your lucky day my dear so you can freshen up and knock off.”

“Thank you very much, madam.” She was almost leaving but stopped to ask, “How long will I be on leave for?” Juliet smirked..”Only time will tell. My regards to your family.”

I’d have to be insane to pass regards from a mean woman like you..and loudly she said, “I’ll surely pass them on.” A few minutes after the maid left, Juliet yelled Lubesha’s name.

A breathless Lubesha stood before her within a minute and she eyed him like he was a piece of garbage. “Kneel down, idiot.” And kneel he did.

“Lubesha or whatever your name is, I’ve got good news for you. Henceforth, you’ll be my maid. Ever heard of a male maid? No? Well, there’s always a first time for everything. So right now, collect Amos’ and Alice’s dirty clothes and go wash.”
Lubesha knew better than to argue. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good..now get out of my sight!” Janet had made sure Lubesha was washing his own clothes as soon as he turned 11 so the boy gratefully knew how to wash but as he sat outside looking at the pile of dirty clothes, he wished his mother had killed him too. Amos’ clothes were beyond dirty! One would think he rolled in the mud or something.
But aunt Juliet had ordered him to wash the clothes and when she says do something, Lubesha better do it if he didn’t want no beating nor getting shouted at.
The boy put water in a black basin, sprinkled enough washing powder and soaked all the bright coloured clothes, Amos’ and Alice’s mixed.

He set to work. By the time Amos and Alice knocked off from school, Lubesha had been washing for over three hours while Juliet was inside the house taking a nap.

Alice and Amos walked straight where Lubesha was seated by the tap washing.
“Why are you washing our clothes?” asked a baffled Alice.

“Aunt asked me to,” replied Lubesha without looking at either of them. “What happened to the maid?” Alice pressed.
“She’s been given a leave, Alice.”
Alice who felt for her cousin said, “I know how to wash my clothes, Lubesha. And it is just wrong for a boy to be washing a girl’s clothes so let me just go in and change and then I’ll come wash the rest of my dirty clothes.”

“Didn’t you hear what he said?” asked Amos hurriedly. “It’s mum who said he washes them and you here saying you want to come help him? oh please…what, you have a crush on him now?”

“Amos, am not in the mood. Please.”
“Whatever,” Amos walked over to the big basin containing the clothes that Lubesha was planning on rinsing. He bent the basin so that all the water and clothes spilt to the ground.
“What are you doing?!” Lubesha was on his feet but it was too late. Amos was stepping on the clean clothes and all of Lubesha’s hard work went down the drain.

“Oops..I guess you’ll have to wash them again!” shrieking with laugher, the spoilt brat walked into the house.

“Am so sorry,” apologized Alice who too walked into the house.

Shaking his head, Lubesha grabbed the dirty wet clothes and begun washing them again.
By the time he was done, he had blisters on his hands. They did look like blisters. Do people get blisters by washing? he wondered.
For the next couple of days, Lubesha did most of the house chores but not without Juliet breathing down his neck telling him this and that wasn’t done properly and that he had to re-do them. The only chore Juliet did was cook as she liked her food nicely made so she couldn’t risk that boy cooking rubbish for her.

That particular day as she cooked while Lubesha was tending to the lawn, Juliet wondered what she had to do in order to make him run away from home cause treating him like a maid wasn’t helping, it seemed. The boy was too tolerant and patient for her liking. He was even more tolerant than her dead sister had ever been. “Let’s see if he’ll stay if and when I stop giving him food,” she said to herself and smiled. Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier?
So she served lunch for her children and herself and while they were eating, Alice enquired. “Isn’t Lubesha eating lunch today?”

Juliet shot her daughter a deadly eye dagger. “Do you want me to smack your stupid face, Alice?”
“No.”

“Then just eat in silence!” Amos stifled a giggle where he was seated.
Two days later, Donald was home and Juliet did all the chores that day. Pretending she always did the chores ever since the maid went to the village to tend to her terribly sick mother, as she had told Donald who had believed her.

After lunch, Juliet stepped out to visit a friend and so did Amos. That left only Donald, Lubesha and Alice at home.

Lubesha was seated in the room that he shared with Amos and was secretly going through Amos’ school work, self teaching himself. He missed school so much but he didn’t know how to break it down to his uncle..maybe it was because of how much he feared his aunt. Alice who was seated in the living room watching T.V with her father said, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, Dad.”
“Am all ears, baby girl.”

She breathed in and out before joining her father on the couch he was seated on.
“It’s mum,” she said in a hushed tone. “I don’t like the way she treats Lubesha when you’re not around.”
Donald’s attention was instantly grabbed so he turned down the volume on the T.V. “What do you mean?”

Alice narrated everything to him and when she was done, she pleaded with him not to tell her mother what she had just said. “Am an adult, baby..” he kissed her forehead. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“I just feel bad for Lubesha cause I can’t imagine being in his shoes…it must be painful.” she hugged her father. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost either mum or you.”

Donald softly raked his fingers through his daughter’s hair as he wondered how best he was going to manly tackle the problem at hand.

When they retired to bed and had switched off the lights, Donald said to Juliet, “I saw how much you worked today, honey. You must be tired.”

“I’m a woman, Donald. I did what females are supposed to do…clean, cook, take care of their husband and children etc.”
“I know, baby. I was just thinking maybe we should get a new maid seeing as Mirriam is taking forever back in the village.”

“No- I mean, I like Mirriam and you know how difficult it is for me to like someone. Besides, maids aren’t supposed to be changed like underwear…you know those people can have nasty traits and I don’t wanna end up with a maid who’ll be crushing cockroaches in my food if I happen to scold her.”

“You have a point…” and then a few minutes later, “I’m planning on enrolling Lubesha in school.”

“What?!” “Come on, sweetheart, the boy is young and he’s gotta go to school.”
She was tired and knew arguing with him was futile so she said, “As if I have a say in all of this. Good night, Donald. And don’t touch me cause am on my period.”

He knew she wasn’t attending and was just acting up because she was upset.
Once it was only she and Lubesha at home the following day, Juliet summoned him to her room. He knelt before her with his head bowed, hands behind him. “Yes, ma’am?”
“What did you tell your uncle yesterday?”
“Nothing, ma’am.”
“You bloody liar!” she smacked him hard across the face.

Juliet wasn’t dull. She had connected the dots. Donald can’t just talk about hiring a new maid and sending Lubesha to school out of the blues which meant someone had snitched and it just had to be Lubesha.
“You ungrateful boy! You’re staying under my roof and eating my food and you have the audacity to go behind my back and bad mouth me to my own husband? I’ll teach you a lesson you’ll live to remember!” she grabbed a hang wire and flogged Lubesha.
“I didn’t do it, aunt,” cried the boy. “I swear on my parents’ graves am innocent.”

Juliet wasn’t even listening to what he was saying as she flogged the living daylights out of the boy. When she was done, his body was sore.

Lubesha walked to the bedroom while crying..neither of his parents had la!d a finger on him while they’d been alive. The boy spent the rest of that day wondering what worth was living when all he did was suffer each and everyday. What wrong had he done for him to be suffering like he was doing?

But he felt a glimpse of hope when his uncle told him later that evening that he’d be starting school soon.

I’ll work hard and better myself, Lubesha vowed to himself.