Saturday affair - 4

"Akira!"

"Akira!"

"Jesus Christ, Akira!," screamed Mike.

"Wh... What?" asked Akira rubbing her eyes as she got up.

"You have drooled over all the invitation cards!," said Mike and pulled the stack of cards on top of which Akira had been sleeping.

"Oh no!" she yelled in disappointment and snatched the cards of Mike's hands to see how much she had damaged them. The ink was smudged for the topmost card and a few were just wet.

"We can dry these off," said Akira and ran upstairs to keep those cards under the sun and when she came back, she saw her brother leaning on the wall with his hands crossed in the front.

"Gaahhh! What lecture now you are going to give me?" asked Akira and scrunched her nose.

"Tomorrow is your marriage and I cannot believe you are still not acting like a grown-up person!"

"Excuse me! What did you just say? Not a grown-up person? Oh my! Are you forgetting I am not the same old Akira anymore? I am admired by people for my business acumen. I was even featured in Times Ney York as the most promising under 30 to look out for. And yet my oh so smart brother thinks that I am not grown up enough!"

"So grown-ups drool over things like that? Do grown-ups pack like this!" said Mike and pointed out of the suitcases of Akira, which was zipped up and yet had a piece of fabric hanging out. That was her pajama!

"Cut me some slack man! I was dead tired. I had just 6 days to get ready for marriage. Do you know how less six days are?" said Akira and showed her open palm and her thumb to her brother.

"I pity Raymond! But then I pity myself. What is he marrying? Gaah hope he doesn't think that I haven't taught you well," said Mike and went towards the kitchen.

"Yo Mike that was below the belt!", yelled Akira.

"Oh really! Then bite me!" said Mike craning his neck out.

"Oh so now you remember mom! She must be feeling privileged now. Even though I am alive in flesh and blood, you hardly have time to talk with me," sulked Mike as he opened a can of orange juice.

"From where is all this coming from Mike?" asked Akira.

"From here!" said Mike and pointed towards his heart.

"Mike!" said Akira with a hushed barely-there tone.

"You are never here! Ever since Raymond is back in your life, you are never here. It's like you have forgotten that I even exist. And reaching out to you is so difficult. You are always in meetings, like always and at nights obviously you do not pick up my phone calls. Why would you? You are always busy. I mean do get it Akira. You are a big shot now, but what about me? For me, you are my only family."

"Mike! You know it's not like that. You know how much you mean to me," said Akira and came inside the kitchen.

"I know that, but I feel that these days you don't share much. So much happened yet you didn't tell me a word. Also, you know it well that you wouldn't have come here yesterday night if you didn't have to pack up your stuff," said Mike and poured the juice into a glass and held it out for Akira.

She picked the glass and placed it on the kitchen counter and said,

"Things have been crazy around and you know that too, but all I wanted was a bit of sanity. So many times I wanted to tell you everything, I wanted to get rid of the weight on my chest, but always, MIke always, I stopped myself.

"I am trapped in a life where there are complications that I can never avoid, but I didn't want the same for you. I just wanted you to enjoy your life like a normal kid," said Akira.

"Normal! This looks normal to you?" asked Mike and to which Akira had no reply and she hung her head low.

Mike wanted to yell so much more, but seeing her face all dull and unhappy, he couldn't say anything more.

Taking a deep breath, he changed the topic and asked,

"So is everything ready for tomorrow?"

A small smile crept on Akira's face as knew it well that the question was an olive branch from her brother. So widening the smile she replied,

"All done but I am just looking for something old and something blue. Maybe I can use ..."

"Come!" said Mike, interrupting her chain of words and stretched his hands out.

"Where?", asked Akira.

"Will you just follow me?" asked Mike.

Quickly gulping the juice, which was placed on the kitchen counter, Akira held the hand of her brother who took her to their basement.

"What are we looking for?" asked Akira.

But Mike didn't reply and pulled out a small box from the top shelf of the basement.

"Ah... your geeky stuff box," exclaimed Akira and then asked, "What is so special in there that you never let me touch it?"

Mike took a deep breath and then said, "You will see."

And he opened the box and pulled out a pale blue colored velvet scrunchie. It had a little blue satin bow and two white pearls dangling from the bow joint.

The moment Akira saw it, her eyes lit up.

"That's mom's", she said and picked it up from Mike's hand. Tears started brimming in her eyes in an instant. It was her mom's favorite scrunchie as it was a gift from her father.

Wiping the stray tear from Akira's face Mike said,

"I was hoping you could use is at your something old and ..."

"My something blue!", replied Akira and hugged her brother.