“What do you mean?” Daniel snapped his head up from his plate, eyebrows knit together. The fingers he held the knife with turned white, as he tried hard to stop himself from snapping the knife in half.
“What? This is what I mean. I feel great, and you should too. Finally, for once, they agreed on something. I’m so tired of hearing them arguing over nonsense every single day,” Mary said as she lifted her dark eyes lazily from her phone to stare at her little brother, whose deep smokey eyes were filled with terror and shock, “Aren’t you happy that we no longer need to buy new sets of bowls and plates every day, my little Danny?”
“No, I’m not,” Daniel said as their eyes locked together.
“To both questions?” Mary dipped her head to her side and stared at the slowly forming fire in Daniel’s eyes. The corner of her mouth quirked up, but her eyes remained hollow, “Come on, my little Danny, don’t be sad. It’ll be fine, you will get over it.”
“Why are you so careless about it? Doesn’t this matter to you? It’s not something that will just be fine!” Daniel’s jaw clenched and his nostrils flared as he lifted his knife and stabbed it on the over-microwaved pancake on his wood plate. Maple syrup splattered everywhere, but the sticky, heavy, thick, yellow, hazy liquid still could not cover up the scratched table filled with fingernail marks and cuts. His eyes flashed with anger, much like lightning on a pitch-black night before the storm.
“Chill. Daniel. Just chill. I told you, you might not understand it now, but when you are older, you will be thankful for this agreement. We are going to have a better life. A better future.”
“No, we are not. You are supposed to be on my side! You are my sister! We, our whole family, are supposed to be together!”
“No, listen. Daniel, don’t you realize how good this agreement is?
“I don’t know what you are talking about and I don’t care.”
“Oh yes. You do. And you know it very well.”
“I’m not like you, Mary Johnson.”
“I know you are not like me. But you know.”
“Don’t. Just don’t.”
“Don’t what? Daniel Robert Johnson, it’s time for you to realize and live in the real world. Nothing is perfect and one day you will lose everyone you love, sooner or later. Well, I don’t suppose you love that monster right? And look on the bright side! So many better and beautiful things will come after they sign the agreement! It will benefit all of us and we will all be happier!”
“Just shut up.”
“Will you ever just stop being a child? Grow up! Can’t you see how that monster is ruining us? Can’t you see what we are facing every day? Don’t you even care about mom?”
“I care about mom. And if it is what it takes to keep us together, then I never want to grow up. All I want is a family. And how dare you say that? How can you say we will all be happier when we are separated? We might never see each other again!”
“Then tell me truthfully. Are you happy?”
For a split-second, no one moved or spoke. It seemed as if someone hit the pause button. The traffic outside the window had stopped, the grass in the yard was straight and silent, the leaves on the trees no longer danced by the wind, like they had been painted there. The heavy wave of silence was like a layer of snow as they stared at each other with deep, coal-like black eyes. One burning like fire, one vacant and hollow.
“Answer me, Daniel. Are you happy?”
Daniel’s lip twitched and he lowered his eyes to stare at the deep scars on the ground, too scared to lift them to meet Mary’s, “Yes. I’m happy.”
“Now say it again with your eyes looking at me.”
Daniel shut his eyes briefly to clear all the emotions in it before lifting them slowly to meet Mary’s. His lower lip trembled as he spoke, “I’m happy to be living with the people that I love. I’m happy to call this place my home. And I’m sure if I tell them not to sign the agreement, they will listen to me.”
Mary sneered as she propped her legs up on the dining table, “You kn—”
“Put your legs down, Mary. You should know it’s a big no-no in the family.”
“And you should know I no longer have a family.”
“From when?”
“From the day they started arguing.”
Which started long before we were even born, Daniel thought as he lowered his eyes.