Chapter 53: 52: Honor your father

In the grim of aurora. A figure resided within the walls of his home in extreme ennui. His mind drifted in his reverie.

With a cheek in his hand, Ashton sits at his desk, peering out the window as it rains heavily. It was cold. The window was swathed in dew such that the grim outside came out as phosphenes to him.

Rain trickles down the glass window in descending droplets. The mild noise of rain colliding with his rooftop sounded relentlessly. The petrichor entered his nostrils. His eyes drooped at this serenity. The calming silence. His eyes … they closed. His head slowly begins to drop. Shifting to the cusps of unconsciousness … when:

A little girl budged through his door, and came rushing toward him. She was armed with a plastic weapon.

She slid on the floor and began to fire at him. Pressured water sprayed out from her weapon in stinging streams. The cold water jetted out at Ashton, drenching his face.

The little girl knitted her brows as she fired on. "I will obwiterate you, brother!"

The water had gotten all over the glasses Ashton had only just cleaned. He took them off his face and started to wipe them with his shirt. In wry, he shook his head at the girl. "Daria!" his tone drags. "You soaked me! Why does mom still let you watch those absurd action movies!? They get to your head!"

She quickly hid the water gun behind her back and stood as straight as a soldier. She didn't want her brother taking it from her. "Don't be silly, Ash. My head is perfectly fine."

Ashton placed the glasses upon his nose bridge again. He shook his head at Daria. "Go play somewhere else, okay? I'm …" he looked down at the books on his desk. "… studying."

She cocked her head. "You're studying how to sleep? New subject?" a grin manifests as her voice trails off.

Ashton tinged. "Whatever. Just go play elsewhere. Can I not get a little alone time here?"

She inched closer. "A girlfriend?"

Ashton crimsoned. "It's not that either! Look," he flicked a hand upward, "Just leave!"

"I'll leave but on one condition …"

Ashton heaved. "Just call it."

Mischievousness painted itself all over her face. "You pretend to be Dark Vader, and I take you down with my lightsaber twice!"

Ashton stroked a hand against his forehead. A stressful breath escapes his mouth. "Fine, fine. Just get out of my room now, please?"

"Okay…" she ran off with incredible speed.

Ashton scoffs at her withdrawal. Then he shook his head. "Can't get any peace in this house. I'm living with my parents and two literal warlocks!"

Riled to the core, he took up a Rubix cube from his desk. He started solving it without having to cast eyes. Within seconds, each face of the cube was an individual color. White, green, red, blue, orange and yellow. Easy.

As soon as he had placed the solved Rubix cube upon his desk again, he heard, "Ash." a familiar tone to which his body jerked.

A short woman walks into his bedroom. All of her facial features were attractive even when she wasn't wearing any makeup. Her golden brown hair reached her neck. Her roundish glasses rested upon her nose bridge.

Both her hands carefully held a little baby at her side. The baby fluttered her hand at Ashton boisterously and tried speaking as best it could.

With a soothing tone, the woman uttered, "Lunch is almost ready. What are you studying?"

Nervously, Ashton peered down at his desk, and picked up a textbook. He displayed it to her. "I uh … was studying Geography?"

The woman narrowed her eyes at him and pressed her lips together in a line. "With a closed book? Studying the cover?"

Ashton heaved. "I'm sorry, mom."

She shook her head at him. "Why are you so reluctant nowadays? Is puberty making you stupid now?"

His eyes averted. Sorrow to his face. "I'm sorry again, mother. It's just that it's Summer and my fri—"

She quickly interrupted him, "Don't … don't do that again. We've talked about this, haven't we?"

Silence on Ashton's end.

"I know it's summer. But it's just a period of time. You still have to study whether you like it or not. Take your father and I for example. As a teacher, still struggling, he's still working everyday including weekends. Your dad—"

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He glared at her, "My Step-dad …" he amended.

She continued. "And I, as a teacher, am using this summer to hone my teaching skills before school starts again. Ashton, you need to do your part as well. How are you going to honor your father slacking with those," her face contorted, "delinquents—"

"Friends … they're my friends," he amended.

"It doesn't matter who they are! They're holding you back. Don't you want to be successful in this life of racial discrimination and inequality? Don't you want to be," her eyes shimmered, "perfect."

He sighed. "I…I do. I'll continue studying right away."

His mother also heaved. The anger on her face subsided. "You can take a break. As I said, lunch's almost ready. Nanna's almost done. You'll go back to your books when you're finished eating."

She walked up to him. "Can you hold Ashley for me? I have to go to the neighbor's place for a bit and I hate it," her tone drawled with apathy.

Ashton stood, taking the baby from her. He held her firmly at his side so that it couldn't fall. "Alright."

The baby looked up at him and started to smile, showing her gums. "Gah Gah!" she tugged on his shirt to get his attention.

His mother smiled, and then walked away. "Honor your father for his work, Ash. Remember him."

Silence.

***

Ashton's father was born without an Ability so he could not ascend to the middle and get automatic jobs. He had spent his entire life as a construction worker, trying to get his family out of poverty.

At nineteen, his girlfriend was pregnant with his first and only son, and had temporarily quit her schooling. This fueled him to push through and work five times harder … for his wife—for his son!

He worked and worked. Toiled and toiled. No education. Barely any difference. So young yet determined. His hands were calloused and almost as hard as stone from all the construction.

Yet, he couldn't seem to rise financially. And so, he started doing more demanding tasks at the job site. Which, unfortunately, resulted in his fatality.

A devastating earthquake took place, and an entire embryonic building had fallen. Rocks and boulders, bricks and columns—they all crashed, crushing many labourers in the building.

His father was one of the few injured survivors. But not for too long. He was supposed to flee the falling building, but he stopped to help a worker whose legs were underneath a giant Boulder that had crushed them.

Ashton's father, like a hero, tried saving the man. Not letting up. When suddenly, the roof of the building collapsed on them both.

He never got to see his son. He never got to marry his girlfriend. A remorseful death. One brought by the struggles of being illiterate.

His wife Alvey was forced to raise his son all on her own. Her parents kicked her out in that they had resentment for her early pregnancy.

She had many spouses that she hoped would help her take care of her son until she got into a career.

She wanted better for Ashton Woods, who had kept his biological father's name. She wanted him to be perfect. To honor Ronald Woods, she swore an oath that she would, 'Never make his son go down the same road as him'.

***

After lunch, Ashton sat in his room studying with eyes kept to slits. Quietude. Undisturbed Silence.

This was the life he had to endure. Had it not been for his friends he would have certainly become a robot.

He sat there at his desk—all day. Today was no different. Flipping pages, writing notes, eyes skimming through information.

When an eerie phenomenon started to transpire.

All papers and books in his room, and his very own hair started to blow by what seemed like wind in a swirling motion.

Spiraling like a tornado. And at the center of his room, the eye, a dark energy started to manifest.

A black hole took form. Except that it wasn't a black hole. It was a portal. A portal that a teenage boy had hopped out of. A smirk materialized on the boy's face as he stood with a callous stature. "Ready to go … Ashfron, was it?"

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