New Blood

 

New Blood

Stephano had visited so many places, so many people today that he had even lost the count. Where is he? Is he starving for food, for water? What is wrong with him? He kept thinking. It was getting dark now, the contrasting dense, yet familiar colors of pink and orange mixing to disperse again in the west. He sat on a stool in front of a shop, what was the reason behind what he did?

He imagined his son, tall and lean with a shock of black hair and the palest skin. The air started to clear, he was looking at his son, his back to Stephano’s face, laughing with a few ragged street teenage boys. Stephano lifted himself up from the stool in rage and crossed the road to where his son was standing. He made the boy face him by pulling on his shoulder ‘How many times have I told you not to hang with people like them, huh? And why would you run away like that?’

Recognition hit, it was not his son but another street kid who was now lifting his fist to Stephano’s face. ‘I’m sorry, I confused you with my son’ Stephano turned in resignation.

‘Lucky boy you have, you money-eating beast, lucky that he ran away’ the boy shouted, probably judging by Stephano’s suit that he had worn this morning for work which was surprisingly still partially crisp.  Stephano didn’t turn like he would have in any usual circumstance but kept walking to the setting sun.

He did not know for how long he had walked and what time it was when someone threw a bucket full of water somewhere near him and drops caught him. He looked up at the window from where the water had been thrown, there was no one but curtains moving cause of rapid movement.     

He examined the building from where the water had been thrown and where fate had led him. It was a shabby and old three-floor apartment. He looked more closely at the details now, the grey metal doors and windows, the cheap hardwood floor, the dead tree. Recognition hit the second time that day, it was the apartment he and his family used to live in, five years back.

Five years back when his income was measly, when they did not know of riches, when his family was happy and tied by love rather than money, and when his son didn’t try to run away every few days.

Dawn, Stephano’s son had run away this morning from their house. Sixth time this year and it was just July. Stephano never understood why he ran away like this all the time. He couldn’t have been depressed as his therapist had said. What did he know of stress, he didn’t have to earn for the family, and he should not be having single care except to study to get into a good university. I have already told him that he doesn’t have to work for my company until he gets the full knowledge. I think he is just procrastinating, he doesn’t want to work hard so he runs away for no reason at all.

Maybe Dawn had come over here, to their old house, he had loved this place. Stephano’s breath quickened as he took the steps forward, if Dawn was here, then he would be in a devastating state. He would be hungry and thirsty, maybe unconscious even, like last time.

He knocked at the doors of the first floor asking people if they had seen a tall, pale, and black-haired boy and the answers all opposed. He took the stairs to the next floor where a young teenage girl was leaning on the railing looking at the entrance of the apartment.

‘Um, hi, I’m Stephano, is there any chance that you’ve seen a…’

‘…tallboy, pale and with black hair’ the girl finished his sentence in her sweet voice. ‘No, I don’t think he came here today, I’ve been standing here all day looking at the people coming and going. And you can hear the voices from the floor below so I heard what you said about the boy’

‘Um, Ok’ Stephano sighed ‘Can you give me some water?’

The girl went inside without saying a word and came again with a glass of water. Stephano drank the water gratefully even if it tasted as if it had mud in it.

He slid down by the wall and studied the wooded floor, all the memories flooded back, five years back they lived on the same second floor, two doors past. Dawn was born here and he used to crawl up till here just before the staircase whenever he found the opportunity to and he even learned his first words here. Things had changed drastically now, nothing was the same.

‘Can I ask you a question?’ the girl asked

‘Sure’ Stephano mumbled, still looking at the ground.

‘Is he your son?’

‘Yes, he’s my son, Dawn’

‘Did he run away?’

‘Yes,’ he was even less audible now.

‘Why?’

Stephano looked up now, this was a step too far. He looked at the girl closely, she was not tall but looked way older than what she would have been. She was wearing a loose shirt and jeans, but her bony frame was visible. By one look at her anybody could tell she looked a decade older than what she would really be. A tang of familiarity hit, but Stephano was still clueless about who she was.

Her impossibly grey eyes panicked ‘Sorry Mr. Rodriguez, I’m in no place to ask that question '

‘How do you know that my name is Stephano Rodriguez?’ Stephano asked calmly, right now he was so tired, he’d have the same reaction if she had told him his entire family history.

‘We used to see each other quite a few times a few months back, Mr. Rodriguez, I’m Tarah Calloway’

‘Tarah Calloway, daughter of Andrew Calloway, my business partner? He had told me that you ran away but he wasn’t able to find you.’

Tarah sighed ‘Yes, you are partially correct, I was found by my father but I insisted that I live alone, by myself. And I only asked him to not tell anybody about me.’

‘Why?’

‘Because here, I could breathe. Work, how I wanted. Live, how I wanted and most of all I am free now’ she said, raising her voice.

‘What do you mean you could breathe, couldn’t you breathe when you were working with us?’

‘Yes, could not, it was all forced on me and I wasn’t even able to do what I wanted. I had to be in all these meetings with people I hated, work I hated, and everything I hated. I was working twenty-four hours just so that I could get more work from my father. Call me a coward, judge me all you want, I would not care.’

‘Okay, but what about money, would you not want to live a better life, better than this’ he gestured towards the apartment.

‘Mr. Rodriguez’ she folded her hands and said in a calm voice now ‘What makes you think that I am not happy? Money is not what makes me happy, that is what all of you don’t understand. I don’t want my pockets jingling to bring a smile on my face’

Stephano was confused, he was happy but tense at the same time when he used to be poor five years back but now that he has money he needs nothing more. His thoughts shifted to his work, he had missed his work today, and so many things were waiting for him to be back at his office.

He shouldn’t even be here today.

He stood up realizing that he’d rather be searching for his son and then going back to work instead of wasting time. 

He turned in the hallway towards the stairs, looking back at the place one last time.  Peace.

‘Mr. Rodriguez?’

Stephano turned towards Tarah Calloway, ‘Yes Miss Calloway’

‘I know that I’m in no place to tell you this but let me tell you this one thing, it may really help’ she signed ‘Maybe it’s better to expect less, maybe it’s better to let loose sometimes because the weight of expectations is way more than responsibilities.

‘I have known Dawn for some time and I really think he is keen to work for your company and sure has the capability to, so please Mr. Rodriguez it would be a favor to me and everybody if you let him work in his own preferred way because that’s how better ideas are made

‘You may be thinking that you are not forcing anything on him but unknowingly you are doing it, it’s as visible as daylight. This is something my father never understood but I have faith he will one day. If he had understood all these things I just told you, I might have been an extraordinary asset to the company.’

Stephano was dumbstruck at everything Tarah had said, memories of him forcing things on Dawn came flooding down on him. He never knew that he had been doing all this to his son and it had been affecting him. Now to Stephano, he was a failure who couldn’t understand what his son had actually wanted, who couldn’t see what was in front of his eyes all this time.

He had always imagined success in his role as a father, he never knew it would be something like this ever. But now that Dawn had gone and maybe for good his biggest fear was realized, the fear that was nurturing itself all this time deeply in his heart, the fear of loss. The fear of never seeing his son again or finding him somewhere like Tarah.

‘Mr. Rodriguez’ Tarah’s voice broke Stephano’s reverie ‘Don’t sweat it’ she continued with a big smile ‘I believe you’ll establish your love in front of him again, and there is always a way to be good again’

With that, she pointed in front of the main gate where a tall figure was sitting on the curb. His shadow not extending by a few centimeters and his pale skin shone under the streetlight which was now lit. His back was hunched and his face was in his hands.

A few hours ago Stephano might have not seen the wretchedness of this position but now he felt it, felt it like a dragger ripping through his heart. Felt like a part of his body which he always thought was close to him, was his, was far away from him now and beyond extent and beyond broken.

But as Tarah had said there was a way to be good again, so he will try to bring this broken part again close to himself and set it free of the pain that it had been enduring all this time.