The day began like a usual. The morning sun was bright, birds chirped, the cars in street honked as they passed. From the looks of it nothing was different.
But the silence around the breakfast table was unusual. Breakfast was the meal that the Sands would enjoy the most. Although everyone had to rush to their respective work post breakfast, yet this was the time they planned as a family. The morning today was gloomy. No one wanted to speak. It felt like if the silence was to be broken, it would be broken by bringing up the call last night.
Last night Irvin Ace Quinn had called. After nearly 25 years he called. He cried on the call. After exactly 8 years he weeped condolences to his sister, Mrs. Tiana Ace Sands. It was the 8th death anniversary of her husband, Frank Huge Sands yesterday and Tiana finally heard her dearest brother Irvin over the phone and weeped with him. She felt as if Frank had just left. The call made her weep through the night. Though she managed to dry out her eyes by morning, all 3 of her children knew that she did not sleep even for a second.
While the elder two, her daughter, Nama Sands and son Titan Huge Sands, were not willing to let it pass, it was Hazel Sands, her youngest born and the one who understood her the most who had asked her siblings to not talk about the call right away.
Hazel failed to understand how Uncle Irvin had such an impact on her mother. As far as she could recall, he had only been a name to her. She failed to put a face to that name. He never visited the family. It was not like he didn't fly down to Country P. It was well known that he and his family visited the country regularly. He just ensured he never visited his own siblings. And so Hazel, who was going to be 25 in 8 days now, had no memory of him or his family.
"Maa, you should sleep today, you know it's not good for your health to stay awake", Titan could not hold his concerns back. He was worried that as soon as all 3 of the Sands siblings would leave for work his mother would brood over the long lost relation she had with Irvin, her brother.
"Maa do you want me to stay back today? I can ask at work...", Hazel would always be the one to stay back to look after her mother. For her nothing came before her. Although staying back was much easier for Nama and Titan, being their own bosses, Hazel was the one who would offer before anybody else had a chance to.
"Hazel! You should be more serious towards your work. Going at this rate you will be fired even before you have a chance to learn anything!" Nama nearly scolded her younger sister. Nama, the most ambitious one of the siblings failed to understand how could Hazel be so casual with her work?
Ambitions came to Nama naturally. So much so that upon Paa's passing, it felt natural for everyone that she took reigns of the business he had left behind. Titan wanted to start his own venture, he was never into Paa's business. But even so he was courageous to start his own thing. It was Hazel, that Nama was worried about the most. When their father passed she was yet to turn 18. She was never interested in corporate life. Nama thought that it was her way to put her lack of ambition.
Hazel studied law and was now working with a non profit organization that supported women in all sorts of distress. It had only been a year since she joined this organization. She was happy working there, so was everyone in the Sands house. Everyone except Nama.
"As for you Maa, why don't you realize how this effects us? We need you Maa! Not them!", by them she meant all her aunts and uncles. If one thing annoyed Nama more than Hazel's casual attitude towards work, it was her mother's attitude towards her own siblings.
"I am fine! I over slept yesterday during the day so I had difficulty sleeping at night, but there is nothing to be worried about", Mrs. Tiana Sands was aggigated more on how Nama spoke to Hazel than how she spoke to her. Also, she couldn't let her children be disturbed by her emotional outburst.
Though Tiana had a sister and another brother, both well settled, leading happy lives, Tiana always yearned for her brother Irvin.
"Maa it's ok! You don't need to explain", Hazel though irritated by her mother's reaction to Uncle Irvin's call, she understood her somewhat. Maa love her brother. Also, she hated the way her sister talked to Maa.
"Maa, it's just that, you know, we only have you now. We can't afford to loose you. And this behavior, this would effect your health. We love you!", it was Titan who spoke this time. He would always act as a balance between his two sisters. The elder one being all rational and logical while the younger one being all emotional. These two were poles apart from each other yet they couldn't live without each other.
"Why has he called all of a sudden? He never called before. Not even when Paa left us", Nama couldn't bring herself to believe that Uncle Irvin just called and cried because he felt so. The Irvin that Nama remembered was a very careful and planned person. Every action of his was well thought of and carefully planned. So this call had to do with something more than simple emotional outburst at his end.
"It was a simple call! Stop overthinking. He is your uncle. He loves you and me. That's it. That was the only reason he called. He got late in coming back I agree, but he realizes his responsibility now.", Tiana had had enough. Irvin is her brother, and brothers call their sisters all the time. With this she got up and left the breakfast table. Partially because she was irritated and partially because she didn't want her children to see the tears in her eyes.
"Sis! Why are you so hard on Maa? You know how much she misses him. And it's beyond her control. She loved them well before Paa and we were in her life. All her siblings are her first child... And Uncle Irvin! He was Maa's best friend. He was the first born after her... The only sibling she had for 5years before Bella Auntie was born!" No matter how hard Tiana tried, Hazel saw her tears and now she felt like fighting her sister for causing those.
"Huh! Best friend! Stop being emotional Hazel! You and I both know that Irvin didn't care a penny about Maa through the years." Behind her mother's back Nama wouldn't even call Irvin her uncle, she hated that man for hurting her mother with everything he did. "You and I both know how selfish that man is. He won't call us if he had nothing to gain from it!"
They all knew what Nama just said was true. After all this was the reason Hazel had no memories of him. Nama and Titan on the other hand had clear memories of him. He and his wife Harper were two of the most selfish people they have seen in the world. Quite opposite to their own parents.
Both the elder siblings knew exactly how and why Irvin walked out of the Quinn family, not looking back towards other five younger siblings. It was then that Frank stepped up and took responsibility of his siblings in law. He loved them like his own. His wife, Taina considered them like her own children so Frank also ensured that all the Quinns got the best of everything possible. He made sure that they all were settled well and married in good families. He cared for them with his heart and soul. He did so till 8 years ago, when death sudden took him away.
So when Irvin called out of the blue, while Tiana got emotionally worked up and her three children were skeptical about the motives of the call. They didn't blink a second while the call went on. Watching their mother cry and call her brother's name with anger first, then with rejection and then with pain. She also kept saying that she was there, as if the person on the other side kept confirming of her presence. But there was nothing more to the conversation from Tiana's side. Though it seemed like a simple call, enough to free Hazel of her doubts, her siblings were not so easily convinced.
"Sis! It was years ago! He might have had a change of heart? Give him some room. Please?", Hazel did not know why was she convincing her sister for her uncle. Shouldn't she be talking for her mother... Why did she suddenly feel so defensive about a person she hasn't ever met?...
"Kiddo, you are right. It can be a change of heart.", Titan's voice interrupted Hazel's thoughts. Kiddo, he would address her lovingly. Although the age difference between them was just three and half years, Hazel had always been his baby sister, more so after their father's passing.
"But Nama is also right, Uncle Irvin may have intentions to hurt Maa again. After all these years, after Paa, Maa may not be able to take that well. We don't want that. Do we?"
Titan knew Hazel would never want Maa to be hurt. She would do anything just to make sure that Maa was always was happy. This was his way of stopping his sister argue any further.
What Titan and Nama did not know was in coming days this unconditional love of Hazel would cost her everything. And then they wouldn't be able to stop her then.
