~ Drugs Drags ~
On the early summer in Oxford, three pals were in the Oxford Senior High School for registration. While waiting for Jule, who had gone to buy forms for all three of them, Raven and Jack joking around about the girls around them.
“Hey, Rave! 9 o’clock, 9 o’clock!” said Jack.
“Kinda short, isn’t she?” replied Raven, after he took a glimpse over the girl that Jack mentioned.
“Yeah,” Jack answered while he still looked at the 9 o’clock girl. “But you gotta admit that she is pretty,” he continued. “And she have a very good body, too,” he added with a wink to Rave.
“Hmm…,” said Rave while he took a better look at the girl. “Yeah, guess you’re right, Buddy,” he admitted, and looked at the gate. “Hey, Jack, I think I found the perfect girl for you. The one that standing at the right gate,” he said seriously.
“Yeah?” said Jack while he took a look at the right gate. “WHAT?!” he responded, almost screamed it. “Are you kidding?”
“Absolutely.” Raven answered in a very small voice while he tried very hard not to rolling on the floor, laughing.
“You said that that gozilla over there is the perfect girl for me?” Jack continued, didn’t intercepted by Raven’s answer. “What a luck! Man, I’m gonna be a dead man after we had a hug. Or may be even while we WERE hugging,” he continued, took a look at the very big, black girl for the last time with a really, really shocked face.
Raven just laughed louder as an answer of it.
Jack looked at him with Jack the Ripper’s expression on his face, and said, “Yeah, laugh as loud as you could, Buddy, and tonight JTR will give you a visit.”
Rave answered while he wiped off the tear at the corner of his eyes as he had laughed so loud, “Sorry, Buddy, but I haven’t felt this fun since…” He stopped, took a deep breath and looked at one of his best buddies with a sad expression before he continued, “…you know, since that war began.”
Jack nodded, felt the pain that one of two best friends of his felt, and laid his arm on Raven’s shoulder to share the pain as he said, “Yeah, I know how your feeling must be, Bro. I think it must be pretty much like me after my mom died and my dad started drinking. And, you know what? I think you, too, need…” He stopped, groped at his pocket, took out a candy, and place it in front of Raven’s face before he continued, “…this! C’mon, take it.”
“Candy?” said Raven as he stared at it.
“Yep! What else, you dummy? Chocolate don’t look like this, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I mean, what a teeny-tiny, little candy can do with it?”
“Just shut up, take it, and eat it, then you’ll understand.”
“Really?”
“Oh, for god’s sake, Rave, have I ever lied to you before? Well, almost every time, I guess. But…, C’mon, I know that you know what I mean, Buddy.”
“I guess so. Okay, I’ll give it a try.” And so, Raven took the candy and ate it.
“So?” asked Jack after a while. “How does it feel? Great, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, you are right, Buddy. It feels so good inside my mouth. And the powder inside it… It makes me feel ‘free’. It feels like I’m…floating…” answered Raven as he gazed at the sky. “Where did you get it? I’ll be glad to have a lot more of it. You don’t get it in Oxford, or even in the United Kingdom, are you? Coz I believe I have never seen it before.”
“Yep, you are right, like you always do, Bro. I didn’t get it in United Kingdom; I got it from my cousin in the United States. He first gave it to me at my mother’s funeral three years ago, and has supplied it to me since then. So I have a lot of stocks in my home. Just come over and get it. Oh, yeah, and don’t talk about it to another person.”
“Why?”
“I myself don’t exactly know why too, actually, but that’s the rule, as my cousin said. You just talk about it to people in need, people like us, you know.”
“Oookay, I guess. And how about Jule, can we talk about it to him?”
“Blessed be!” said Jule, as he suddenly appeared behind them. “I heard you said my name just in time.” Didn’t care about his friends whom had frozen by his sudden appearance, he continued, “Oh, and by the way, talk about what to me?”
“Err… It’s…” started Raven, but got cut by Jack, whom quickly said,
“It’s about what could have holding you up so long, Buddy. May be…” He nodded at the gozilla girl, and continued as Jule took a look at the gozilla girl, “You don’t really wanna know what exactly were we talking about, do you?”
“Well…” Jule stared at the gozilla girl before he gave an actual answer. “No, I don’t, I think. And here it is, your forms,” said Jule as he gave them their forms.
“Thanks, Jule,” said Rave, as he gave Jack a pair of questioning eye.
“Thanks, Buddy,” said Jack, moving his head lightly to left and right as an answer for Rave. “I don’t know what I would do without you to wait in the line for me, Bro.”
“Oh, I know exactly what you will do; you will sick to death while you were waiting in the line, right?”
“Definitely, Master Jule,” answered Jack, as he bow to Jule. “So, what will we do now? Just going home or what?”
“How about going to my house?” suggested Rave.
“You know, Rave, I’ve waited forever for you to say that. I can’t wait to try your Wii,” Jack answered. “How about you, Jule?”
“I’m okay with it, but…”
“But…?”
“Nope. Forget it. Let’s go.”
“Try it, and you will start the end of your life.”
“GODDAMNIT, LEON!” Lyon, Raven’s mom, shouted from the top of the stairs, as she walked down when the three buddies opened the front door. “I’m sick of those ‘sorry, Honey, I can’t say it yet’, ‘not the time yet’, and all the scraps like that. Couldn’t you just tell me who she is and what did you do in her house?” She got to the ground floor as she continued, “If it’s not for Rave…”
“You’ll be out of this house already,” said Rave, finished his mom’s sentence with a very cold tone, caused her to freeze on the lowest stair as she looked at him in her shock. “Or is it you’ll have a divorce accusation already that you wanted to say, Mom?”
“No, no, Rave…,” said Lyon, in a begging tone as her face started to get pale.
“Err… Good afternoon, Mrs. Brave,” said Jule, as he gave Raven a nudge with his elbow to stop his sarcasm. “Looks like we came on the wrong time,” he said as he smiled lightly.
“Hi, Kids,” said Leon as he got to the ground floor behind his wife. “Done with the forms already, I see. Sorry about the ruckus. Sometimes, problem happens in a marriage, you know,” he continued, as he smiled tiredly.
“Hi, Mr. Brave. Hi, Mrs. Brave. Guess we better go home now,” said Jack. “You know, we don’t want to intercept…” he stopped, as he tried to find the words that would fit the most to finish it.
“Family’s chat,” said Jule, finishing his friend’s sentence. “Bye, Mr. Brave. Bye, Mrs. Brave,” he said before he turn around. “Be strong,” he whispered to Raven as he walked out the door before Jack.
“See you later, Mr. Brave, Mrs. Brave,” said Jack, and followed Jule. “Call me.” Jack said it to Raven without voice while he looked at him as he walked through the door. As answer, Raven just nodded his head as he felt so tired all of a sudden.
“Are you satisfied now?” said Raven tiredly after his buddies gone as he went up the stairs, leaving his parents frozen behind him.
“I don’t need drugs, I just need peace.”
Three months later, Raven became so stressed by his parents, and so he became so addicted to the candies that Jack gave him three months before, even after Jack said that he had to pay for it at the third time. And so, after three months, he had lost all of his savings in the bank, his Wii, and his BB also.
When his mom asked him about where they had gone, Raven answered that the Wii got borrowed by Jack, and the BB had been stolen by some thieves that he and his buddies met when they went to a bazaar. As for the money, he just said that he had some secret projects in progress that need all those money.
And he also started to have a habit of doing dinner only after his parents done eating as well as he never let his parents got inside his room anymore. Just like that night. When his mother told him that dinner was ready, she got no answer from Raven’s room.
The next morning, he hadn’t gone down for breakfast yet when he had to gone to school that morning. As they were preparing for breakfast, Lyon talked to her husband apprehensively,
“Leon, I got a bad feeling about Rave, he had skipped dinner with us for so many times now, but he never skipped the breakfast yet. And forget about skipping school, as he had already been so serious about it since his first day.”
“Have you called him yet?”
“Yes, I have. But he didn’t answer me, just like last night. I thought he was angry by then, but now…”
“I guess you are right. Let’s check him up.”
And so, they went up to Raven’s room .
“Rave, don’t you have to go to school today?” said Leon, when they got in front of Raven’s room.
No answer.
“Rave, I know that you are angry at us, but please, open the door. At least answer us,” begged Lyon.
Again, there was no answer from the inside.
“Kiddo, if you open the door now, I’ll break this damn door!” said Leon apprehensively as he looked at his wife’s worried face.
“Leon…” said Lyon as his face turned pale.
“Back off,” said Leon, before he started to smash the door up.
“Oh, my God! Rave! What happened?” said Lyon hysterically as she saw Raven lying on the bed with half dried foam in his mouth, flowed through his face, right to his pillow when the door broke up after Leon smashed it for the third time. “Leon!”
“I’ll call the ambulance,” Leon said quickly as he reached the phone in the room.
“Achievement, YES! Drugs, NO!!!”
“How is he, Doc?” said Leon and Lyon at the same time when the doctor whom took care of Rave came out of the emergency room that night.
“I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Brave. We’ve tried our best, but only god knows when he wanted to call him,” said the doctor. “Looks like he had used those drugs for awhile now, and last night, he just overused it. May be something had triggered it by that time,” he continued. “I’m sorry, but may I ask you what happened last night?”
“We… We had a very hard argument last night, the worse in these few months,” said Lyon, leaning to her husband.
“Yeah,” said Leon, nodded as he closed his eyes in his suffers and tightened his grip to calm Lyon in his arm down.
“You see, Mr. and Mrs. Brave, most of my overdosed patients didn’t use those drugs to have fun; it’s because they are just trying to find a way out of their sufferings. And Raven did just that,” said the doctor, as he smiled understandingly.
“I guess so,” said Leon, while his wife just nodded. “Can we see him now, Doc?”
“Well, sure. I think I have kept you here long enough,” said the doctor as he moved to his left to give them access to the door. “And… Mr. Brave,” he continued as Leon opened the door, “Please make sure you don’t scold him. Remember, he is just a victim of the life’s drama, just like all of us.”
Leon smiled before he answered, “Don’t worry, Doc, I won’t.”
“Good to hear that,” the doctor smiled. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, now…” he said as he crouched and walked to his room as the couple went in to the room.
“Hi, Honey, how are you doing?” said Lyon when she saw Raven was awake, looked so weak with those wires around him as she tried so hard to smile while she went to the left side of his bed.
“Dumb,” Raven answered with a very weak and slow tone as he smiled.
“C’mon, Kiddo, we all know that you are the smartest kid in the house,” Leon smiled as he went to the right side of the bed. “Say, Kid, what do you want to get out of this boring room, huh?”
“All I want…” Rave said in the weaker and slower tones as the heart beat detector started to beep faster, held his father’s and mother’s hand that holding his hands as they tried to pull it back to call the doctor, and continued, “…is…the two of you…” He stopped, took some deep breaths as he pull his parent’s hands to his chest, before he continued. “…to become…” He hold their hands together, making his parents’ hands one, before he continued again. “…one…once…” He took a very deep breath, smiled, and finished his words. “…again…”
As the last word being said, the heart beat detector’s beeping changed into a single long beep.
“Service requires sacrifice.”
Three days later, after the funeral, Jack and Jule stayed at Raven’s tomb with his parents. As the others went out of the cemetery, they move closer to them.
“Hi there, boys. Guess now it’s just the two of you, eh?” said Leon as he saw them coming. “Must be hard for the two of you, eh?”
“Yeah, but I think it’s harder for both of you,” Jule replied. “I mean, at least me and Jack still have each other as friends, or best friends in our case; but you…” he stopped.
“…both of you just have Rave so far. So it must be a lot harder for you than to us,” Jack finished his friend sentence, like the three of them always did for the last five years.
“In our case, we can ‘make’ another,” said Leon, as he winked his right eye before he got a surprised look from his wife, whom was in his arm, like she always did since the morning when they found their son unconscious. But before she could say something, Jack said nervously,
“Mr. Brave, Mrs. Brave, I think I must make a confession to you.”
“About what?” Leon asked.
“About whom…” Jack started, but got cut by Jule, who said,
“No, way, Man. You’re not going to say…”
“…gave Rave the drugs,” Jack continued, paid no attention at all to what Jule said. “It’s me,” he said, as he looked at the three others in pain. “I have used it for over three years now. I didn’t mean it. I mean, I didn’t…”
“WHAT?!!!” shouted Jule. “WHAT were you thinking, given that shit to Rave?” he continued, showered Jack’s face with his saliva as he talked, as they stood so close to each other. “Wait, WHAT were you thinking to start using that damn thing in the first place?”
“Jule, Buddy,” said Jack, hold on Jule’s shoulder with his right hand as he clean his face with his left palm. “You really, really need to learn how to let others finished what they were gonna say before you say what’s in your head, Buddy,” he continued, moved his head to the left and right with a commiserated face. “I meant it!” added Jackk as he saw Jule just opened his mouth like an idiot.
“What I were gonna say is ‘I didn’t even know that those candies were drugs.’ I mean, how old am I back then, eleven?” Jack said slowly, as his eyes started to felt hot. “And I was so sad and distressed back then as my mother passed away and my dad started to drink and acting weird. And those candies that Rob gave me… It made me feel so free; it made me feel the peace that I needed at that time,” he continued, looked at the others as his vision started to seem blurry. “You’d do the same as I did if it was you.
“And when I saw that Raven with that burden…” Jack stopped again, looked at the others as a tear dropped from his eye. “All I wanted to do is help him out of that pain.” Then he started to sob.
“Oh, Jack!” said Jule as he hugged Jack and sobbed louder than Jack did, causing Jack to cry on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Buddy. I’m so sorry. I guess I didn’t do what I must do as your friend back then,” he continued between his sobs. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“I’m… I’m sorry, Mr. Brave, Mrs. Brave,” said Jack between his sobs. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t…”
“It’s okay, Jack. It’s not your fault, too,” said Lyon, as she hugged the boys and closed her eyes, causing a tear to drop on them.
“That’s right,” added Leon, as he hugged them all and closed his eyes too. “You, too, are just a victim of the drama of life, Kid. Just promise me that you’ll live your life to the fullest without those damned things. For us, for Raven’s sake, and for your own goodness. I’m sure that Rave will understand, and that he will want you to continue your life without them.”
“Yeah, I already planned to go to rehabilitation center here in Oxford, but, you see, I still don’t know how to tell it to my father,” said Jack despondently, detached his self from the others.
“Don’t worry, Jack. I will help you talk it to him,” said Leon.
“Really?” said Jack. And when Leon nodded, he shouted “Oh, thank you, Mr. Brave,” as he hugged Leon in his happiness.
“It’s okay, Jack,” said Leon, surprised and amused with Jack’s reaction. “And thanks for letting us know about it.”
“You are welcome, Sir,” answered Jack.
“Now, both of you, go home. I’m sure that your parents are worried about you by now,” said Leon, as he dispatched from Jack.
So the boys turned to Rave’s tombstone to say their last goodbye to him.
“Bye, Rave. Rest in peace, Buddy,” said Jule.
“Bye, Buddy. Wish me luck with the rehabilitation, Bro,” said Jack. And as he turned around, the wind blew in the cemetery. And as the wind blew, Jack heard Raven’s voice said,
“I will.”
So he turned his head back to Rave’s tombstone and said, “Thanks, Buddy,” and started to restrain from Rave’s tombstone to the cemetery’s gate.
“And, Boys,” Leon called before they got too far. “We’ll glad to have you visit us every once in a while,” he continued after they turned around. “You wouldn’t mind to visit two oldsters of an ex-friend, would you?” He smiled, didn’t realize the asking eyes Lyon gave him from his shoulder.
“Sure, Sir,” said Jule. “We’d love to.”
“And talking about oldsters, are you kidding us, Sir?” Jack said with a cunning smile. “I think, well, I’m sure that it’s ‘we think’, actually, that both of you still can make a bunch of little Rave before you fit to be called ‘oldsters’.”
“Yep, you are right, Buddy,” said Jule, with the same cunning smile on his face. ”It’s WE think, not just YOU think,” he continued, pressurized the words ‘we’ and ‘you.’
“Yeah, I guess you kids are right about that,” said Leon, mimicking the same cunning smile. “But with both of you around, I’m not sure there will be enough little Rave to be called a bunch.” He laughed, and again, didn’t realize the asking eyes that Lyon gave him. The only difference is, this time, those eyes filled with sorrow. And pain.
“Now who told us to come every once in a while?” said Jack, and turned back to the gate as he said, “Let’s go, Jule, before we started got blamed for the less of those little Rave. Bye, Mr. Brave. Bye, Mrs. Brave.”
“Guess you are right, Buddy,” Jule agreed. “See you later, Mr. Brave, Mrs. Brave,” and he waved his hand before he turned around.
“Bye, Kids,” said Lyon, as his husband laughed before he said,
“See you soon.”
As the boys walked away, Leon tightened his arm around Lyon and said,
“So, they finally leave us alone, eh?”
“Yeah,” said Lyon, as she took Leon’s hand off her, and looked at his eyes. “Why did you do that, Leon?” she said, as her vision started to seem blurry.
“Did what?” said Leon in his confusion.
“Those ‘we’, ‘us’, and finally, the ‘a bunch of little Rave’,” said Lyon, between her anger and sorrow. “Don’t you know that hurt me a lot more than you just walk out the house with that woman in front of me? Or did you do it intentionally? To hurt me?” she shouted it, as she started to sob.
“Woman? What woman?” said Leon, still confuse. But as the words came through his mouth, his mind caught what his wife was talking about. “Oh, you mean Sarah?” he said, as he started to laugh loudly.
“So that woman’s name is Sarah, huh? So, what? Do you hope me to put up the white flag just with telling me her name? I’m sorry, Mister, but that won’t work on me!” Lyon shouted it, and started to sob louder. “And what’s that laugh for?”
“Lyon, Sweetie,” said Leon, caught Lyon’s hands while it moved as she talked, pulled her closer, and wiped her tear with his hand. “Calm down, Sweetie. You got it all wrong, Honey.”
“Wrong? You mean my eyes had cheated me?” said Lyon, as she tried to pull her hands off from Leon’s. “Well, here is the news for you: then my ears have to be checked too. Because you just told me her name is Sarah, didn’t you?” she got angrier as her afford to put her hands off Leon’s hands failed.
“That’s not my point, Sweetie. What I mean is that there is nothing between me and Sarah.” He tightened his grip on Lyon’s hands as she became wilder, before he continued. “Okay, we did have something before, I won’t lie to you. But it was very long time ago, when we were still in the high school. Long before I met you in the college.” He stopped and kissed Lyon’s hand, and continued,
“I did go to Sarah’s house before, as you saw me, but I’ve done nothing with her back then. I just met her because she said that she had a daughter of mine from our relation before. And that’s the reason why I went to her house too, to see my ‘daughter’. But you see, I knew already what kind of woman she is now, so I weren’t just belief her without proving it. So I’ve got our blood tested.”
“And…?” said Lyon, started to feel guilty.
“Well, it turned out that I was right, that girl is not my daughter. Sarah just needed money at that time, and I appeared to have been in a wrong place and a wrong time when he saw me a few months ago,” said Leon.
“Why didn’t you tell me when the result came out?”
“Because…” Leon stopped and rolled his eyes before he continued. “…that damn paper couldn’t have chosen the more perfect time to come to our mailbox.” He stopped, took a deep breath, and continued as he looked into Lyon’s questioning eyes. “It came in the day when we took Rave to hospital, and I just had a time to open it the night after it. Forget about trying to find the time to tell you about it with those bustle we had these days, I can hardly spare a second to think about it back then,” said Leon, as he detached Lyon’s hands and lifted his own hands and shoulders to make a ‘that’s what happened, what could I do?’ pose.
“Oh, Leon!” said Lyon, as he ran to Leon and hugged him. ”Leon, Honey, I’m so sorry,” said Leon, as she started to cry again on Leon’s chest.
“So, finally, I’m back to ‘honey’, and not just a mister, I guess,” said Leon, as he smiled cunningly and hugged back at his wife.
“You bet, Mister,” said Lyon, as he punched lightly on Leon’s chest. “But why wouldn’t you tell me before it, then?” asked Lyon as she loosened her hug so she could see Leon’s face.
“Well, I didn’t tell you back then because I didn’t want you to get annoyed by that female fox, too,” said Leon, as he pulled Lyon back to his arms and kissed the top of her head. “Believe me, she is a woman you wouldn’t want to have anything with.”
“And you thought that I’d prefer to be crazy by thinking what were you doing with her rather than that? Sorry, Mister, but I’d rather face the fox than to be crazy for you.”
“You do?” said Leon, as he pulled Lyon away and lifted Lyon’s chin, so that he could see her face.
“Of course I do,” Lyon said as she smiled, “Because I love you with all my heart, Honey. From the beginning, when I first met you, and when I agreed to be your wife, now, and until death tear us apart. And even after that.”
“Just as I do,” said Leon, felt flying just by his love to his wife, as he lifted her chin and kissed her softly on her lips.
They kissed so deeply that they didn’t realize the light that came out from Raven’s tombstone.
“See? It’s all just a misunderstanding after all,” said Raven, whom had come out from the light, caused his parents to restrain their self from each other in shock as he smiled. “All you have to do is talk to each other.”
“Oh, Raven, Honey,” said Lyon, as her tears flowed through her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Honey.”
“We’re sorry, Kid,” said Leon, smiled in pain. “If only…”
“It’s okay, Dad, I’m okay now,” said Raven as he smiled cheerfully. “What has happened, had happened. Nothings we do or say now will change the past. All we can do now is to learn from our mistakes, so that it will never happen again in the future.”
“Yeah, guess you’re right, Kiddo,” said Leon. “So… What will you do now?”
“Well, I guess I have to face whatever it is that awaits me for the consequences of what I did,” answered Raven as he smiled lightly.
“Well, I think it wouldn’t be so hard, Kid. Because much of the fault is in our hands,” said Leon.
“Oh, Rave!” Lyon shouted after he looked at Raven’s feet as she cried.
All of them looked Raven’s feet, which have started to fade away upward. And after awhile, Raven looked at his parents and said, “Well, I guess it’s time for me to go, then.” He smiled as he said, “Bye, Dad. Bye, Mom.”
“Bye, Honey,” said Lyon, as she leaned toward her husband.
“Bye, Son,” said Leon, as he tightened his arm around his wife.
“And Mom, Dad,” said Raven, as his neck fade away. “Do live a happily ever after life, for me.”
He smiled, as the fading reached his chin.
“We will, Kid.” Leon smiled, at the same time as Lyon smiled and said,
“We will, Honey.”
“Blessed be,” said Raven, as his face fading.
“Blessed be,” his parents said together.
“And he is gone,” said Leon after awhile as he softly caressed Lyon’s arm to calm her down as she had started to cry again after Raven gone, “Again.”
“Yeah,” said Lyon, as she tightened her arms around Leon to prevent another wave of tears. After she had calmed down a little, she asked Leon, “What will we do from now on, Leon?”
“Well,” Leon started as he placed his chin at the top of his wife’s head. “To tell the truth, I really think we should take a good, long sleep before anything else.”
“Leon!” Lyon yelled as she pulled her head away from Leon’s chest.
“What?” said Leon, looked at Lyon’s eyes before he kissed her forehead softly and placed his own forehead there as he closed his eyes. “I don’t know about you, Sweetie, but I myself can’t live another day without going to bed as soon as possible.” He lifted his head, and continued as he looked as his wife’s eyes, “But I guess you are feeling the same as me.”
“Well, I am. But you know that’s not what I meant,” said Lyon, as she hit his husband’s chest softly before she put her head back there.
“Well, I don’t know exactly how we are gonna do it, but I think we must ‘live a happily ever after life’ as we promised Rave,” said Leon, as he softly tightened his hug.
Lyon pulled his head back and looked at Leon’s eyes and smiled as she asked, “With ‘a bunch of little Rave’?”
“Well,” said Leon, kissed her wife’s softly on the lips and smiled naughtily as he continued, “We’ll see if we can make it a bunch.”
Lyon placed her head back to Leon’s chest as her face flushed before she said as she smiled in her flush, “You big bad rascal.”
“Well,” started Leon, after they stand there for awhile, enjoyed hugging and hugged by each other after a very long time not doing it. “I guess we’d better go home and take a nice, long sleep now before we fall asleep here and accompanied Rave for another night.”
“Yeah, I guess we’d better,” agreed Lyon.
And so, they walked out the cemetery; to start their ‘happily ever after’ life, as they, and all of us, should have done since the beginning. Without lies. Without anger. And with love.
“After the end, there is the beginning.”
~swt”~
