Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 21

Episode 4 years ago

Dysfunctional Family - Season 1 - Episode 21

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He warily walked towards his uncle’s bedroom and softly rapped on the door. It was now or never.

Donald was seated on the bed with his laptop between his legs.. His eyes focused on the screen, he loudly called for whoever was knocking to go in.
“Oh..it’s you.”

The way Donald said it made Lubesha believe he was the last person his uncle wished to talk to. It had been almost two weeks since his suspension and the tension between him and his uncle was now starting to get to him thus he decided to confront him.
“Yes, it’s me. Do you have a minute?”
There was no use dodging the conversation which was likely to be held sooner or later and Donald settled for sooner rather than later so he shutdown his laptop and closed it, placing it aside. “I do.”
“Can I take a seat?”
“Sure do, Lubesha.”
Lubesha went ahead and sat beside his uncle. Where to begin from, he wasn’t certain so he said, “I messed up, I really did. And you have every right to be mad at me but the cold shoulder that you’ve been giving me lately is slowly killing me.”
“It’s always nice when one owns up to their mistakes, my boy. I think I might have overreacted too so I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me, I’m the one who messed up. You sent me to school with so much faith and how do I repay you?” He was ashamed to look his uncle in the eye so he bowed his head and stared at his fingers instead. “I went chasing skirts and ended up getting suspended.”
“Don’t feel low,” said Donald assuringly. “Being a man, I understand you very well though I’ll urge you to put your head in the game next time and leave no room for distraction.”
“Next time?”
Donald beamed. “What did you think? That I’ll let you stay home doing nothing for almost a year? No way! You’ll be going for tuitions, boy. I ain’t the type to dwell on the past..I believe in burying the hatchet and forging ahead.”



How can someone afford to be this kind hearted? Thought an amazed Lubesha who found himself on his knees thanking Donald and promising him he wasn’t going to screw up this time around.
“Just make sure you keep your trouser zipper closed,” Donald half joked and made Lubesha stand for a hug. “We’re a family.”

Lubesha heard himself say, “I owe you a lot, uncle Donald. And I’ll do everything I can to make you proud and somehow repay you for all you’ve done for me.”
“I know you’ll make me proud,” Donald rubbed Lubesha’s back.
Juliet looked at herself for the hundredth time in the mirror just so she could be certain she looked great and decent at the same time. She was going to visit her husband after all so she needed to look her very best.
“How do I look?” She asked Mirriam once in the living room, spinning around.
“Splendid,” Mirriam replied in a dreamy tone. “But then again, you’re the queen of fashion.”

“You can say that again,” Juliet giggled and stepped outside.
Life had been rough for her ever since Donald had declared they go their separate ways and things seemed to be worsening each day. What with Amos’ behaviour going from bad to worse? If it meant her swallowing her pride and going to kneel before Donald asking him to come home, she was going to do it. If it meant tolerating Lubesha would fix her home, she was more than ready to not mistreat him though that was going to be hard as the hatred she harboured for him was almost lethal.

Now was she happy he was finally out of school? Surprisingly, she wasn’t. Maybe it was because Donald still saw some potential in the boy.
“If I didn’t know better,” Juliet angrily mumbled as she hit the road, I’d say Janet had sent Lubesha with some charms to wrap my husband around his little fingers. I really wonder what it is that Donald sees in that piece of trash.”

She knew exactly where Donald lived Amos had given her the address some time back but she hadn’t mustered the courage to pay him a visit. Or was it she had too much pride? Anyway, gone was the pride as Juliet drove all the way to Donald’s house, parked her car by the roadside and went to knock on his door. It was Alice who came to open it and for a few seconds mother and daughter stood looking at each other like they were strangers.
Juliet cleared her throat and was first to speak. “You’ve grown, Alice. Is your father in?”

“That’s all you gonna say to me? Wow!” Alice clapped her hands before looking her mother from head to toe. “Sometimes I really wonder if you’re indeed my mother.”
“I don’t have time for your pep talk, Alice. You and I know we’ll never be as close as Amos and I are or you and your Dad are. Now, is Donald home?”

“He is.”
“I’ve come to see him.”
Alice merely shook her head, moved aside and later ushered her mother to the living room.

Everybody was awkwardly staring at Juliet. Could it be because this was the first time she was visiting them? Donald, Alice and Lubesha all waited for her to say something and not just sit on the couch like some statue.
When she spoke, she said to Donald, “Can I talk to you, in private?”
“Alright,” he rose and led her to his bedroom.


The decor in the bedroom was nice, like the rest of the house.
“Nice place you have here, Donald.”
“I’d like to believe you didn’t come all the way here to compliment my decor, did you now?”

“Of course I didn’t..” She walked towards the dressing cabinet and found a photo of her and Donald which she picked up. “We looked so happy.” “We were happy,” Donald lightly replied and t----t his hands into his pockets.

“Of course we were.. What happened to us, Donald?”

“You happened,” he was curt as he took his hands from his pockets and got the photo from Juliet’s grip, putting it back on the cabinet. “Why are you here?”
She swallowed some saliva and with it went some of her pride. “I came to tell you to come back home..our house is falling apart and so is Amos.”
“What do you mean?”

They sat and Juliet gave Donald an account of Amos’ bad behaviour. “I’m afraid if no man intervenes, Amos will end up really bad,” even saying it gave her chills. “He might end up as one of these drug addicts we see around or worse still, a thug! And I don’t want him to waste his life like he’s doing.”
“Am I to think you believe I’ll straighten Amos out?”

“There’s no harm in trying, Donald. He’s our son after all.”
He may not often show it but Donald loved his children equally and hearing what his son had been up to tore his fatherly heart apart. “I am willing to come back-”
“You’re?”
“Easy, Juliet. Let me finish my sentence. So, I am willing to come back but on one condition.”
An impatient Juliet asked, “Which is?”
“That you leave Lubesha in peace. I don’t want you giving him any drama, please. Just mind your own business while he minds his and we’ll be fine.”
She was hesitant despite having thought through this already. “I believe I can do that. Hell, I can do anything for my kids! Believe it or not, Donald.”
“I know you love them in your own way,” Donald told Juliet while caressing her cheek.
She touched the hand that was doing the caressing. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
And they locked lips.
After dinner later that day, and after Juliet was long gone, Donald summoned Lubesha and Alice to his bedroom and informed them they were all going back to their previous home.

The kids were quiet.

“Say something!” said a desperate Donald.
Lubesha said with a shrug, “I have no objection whatsoever. I mean, aunt and Amos are our family and the family isn’t complete without them.”
“Thank you! Alice?”
Alice scratched her scalp underneath her braids. “This was bound to happen and in as much as Amos and mum can be a thorn in the flesh at times, they are still family and as Lubesha said, the family is incomplete without them.”

The beam on his face was inevitable. “You two are the best!”
“No, you’re the best,” Alice and Lubesha said in unison and went to give Donald a big hug.

At that juncture, everything seemed perfect.

☆☆☆

“Drag your lazy a-s out of bed!”
Amos groaned and checked the time..he then covered his head with the duvet.
Juliet was slowly losing her patience so she grabbed the duvet and threw it aside. She didn’t care about seeing her son clad in only his boxers.
“Get up, Amos!”
“It’s only 7 in the morning..can’t I sleep for at least two hours more?”
“In those two hours, your Dad, Alice and that Lubesha will be here so you better get up, clean yourself and this room!” she angrily went to open the windows. “Gosh, it smells like a brewery in here!”

Amos sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes. His head was pounding. “I’ve heard you. Now you can leave so that I can clean the room.”
“You better be quick!”
She wanted everything to be perfect for Donald’s return and that day being a holiday, Mirriam hadn’t come so all the work had to be done by Juliet. Not that she was complaining, it had just been quite long since she’d woken up at 4 am and tackled so many chores within 3 hours.
Amos on the other hand sipped on an energy drink as he lazily cleaned his bedroom. Was he as eager for his father, sister and cousin’s return as much as his mother was? He wasn’t certain. All he knew was he was old enough to do as he pleased, drinking beer and smoking weed inclusive.
When Donald’s van pulled up in the yard, Juliet and Amos rushed from the porch where they had been standing and went to welcome the trio.

Hugs were exchanged and for the first time ever, Juliet embraced Lubesha.
That embrace meant so much to Lubesha while to Juliet it was nothing more than a common hug. After all even hugs can be deadly too. Take Judas Iscariot hugging Jesus for example.

Amos was taking bags out of the van and into the house when he announced, “I gotta say, I missed y’all.”
Donald, Lubesha and Alice beamed in unison and Alice flung herself at Amos one more time. “Silly you, we missed y’all too.”
There was contagious laughter as the bags were being taken into the house and Donald wrapped his arm around Juliet’s shoulders as they were a few feet behind the kids. “We’ll start our lives anew, right?”
She smiled. “Why not? It already feels like we’re starting afresh.”
It was a lazy Sunday morning. Lubesha had skipped church and so had Juliet, Alice and Amos. Donald was at work.
Lubesha woke up early and got a broom. He had just bent down to start sweeping the kitchen floor when he heard his aunt’s voice say behind him, “Give me that, I’ll sweep the house. Cleaning the house isn’t your job, Lubesha.”
He almost thought he was dreaming cause it’s only in dreams where Juliet can be that reasonable. Lubesha who was too awestruck to argue reluctantly handed her the broom.
Juliet got it and added, “You and Amos will work in the garden today so if he’s asleep go wake him.”

“Um..okay.”
For rest of that day, Juliet treated Lubesha like her own child such that Lubesha couldn’t refrain from asking her the question that had been bothering him since morning.
“Why the sudden kindness towards me, aunt?”
Since she had been washing plates, she washed her hands and then wiped them. Juliet turned to face Lubesha. “Don’t get things twisted, dear nephew. Me being kind towards you doesn’t mean we’re now the ideal aunt and nephew, no. I’m simply doing all I can to keep my home and marriage stable.”


But as he went to his room, Lubesha assured himself that it was only a matter of time before him and his aunt became ‘the ideal aunt and nephew,’ as she had put it.
During his free time, Donald sat Amos down and talked to him about his beer drinking, smoking of weed and other bad habits of his.
“All these habits have deadly consequences, my son. Take weed for example, it renders some people mad.”
Amos laughed.

“There’s nothing funny, Amos. I’m a doctor thus I know what am talking about. Forget madness, tar and nicotine found in these cigars or weed or whatever it is you call them does more harm than good to your health.”

“Preach!” Juliet stuck her head into the bedroom. “Preach, Donald. Preach.”
Donald chuckled and said to Amos. “Let me not even get started on alcoholism and promiscuity.”

“Fine, Dad. Let’s say I quit all this stuff, what will I be doing home?”
“Who says you’ll be staying home? I’ll find you a job.”

“You will?”
“I promise..but only if you’re on your best behaviour.”

Amos was ecstatic. “I’ll try.”
Lubesha was enrolled at a tuition centre and he solely focused on his studies. Tracy did cross his mind from time to time but he was too busy with his studies that he couldn’t spare time to go looking for her. A few days before he could sit for his finals, Lubesha went back to Hillcrest.

Back in Lusaka, Juliet lay in her bubble bath plotting how she was going to bring down Lubesha once and for all. Sabotaging his final exams seemed like the best and last shot she had.

She mumbled to herself, “I really hope my plan won’t flop this time around.”