A standing ovation for a girl of ten years of age consisting the audience of a boy only three years older was the most entertaining thing they could come up with.
"We shouldn't disturb father much." He was concerned.
"We're not disturbing father. We're playing!" She said, jumping around the room with unsatiable energy.
She hit her knee on one of the chairs which creaked loudly, afterwards she sat down on the floor, learning her lesson. If the light was able to enter into the house maybe they'd have more visibility.
The government passed a new sanction recently, prohibiting multiple windows from being in operation due to their fragile nature and tendency to break easily. Apparently numerous glass shards fell from one of the buildings and killed a kid, even blinding one.
Terrible stuff it was, thought Anis.
"It's still bad though! We can't even lay in the sun a little in this cold!" She gritted her teeth, making them chitter way too much for it to be considered natural.
Anis gave his sister a smile, half of understanding and half of the appreciation every big brother has engraved in them. He bet even Ethan had such a face.
Big brother had given them a toy when they had headed back from the park, it was a small robot named Kelly with a body of grey plastic, its mouth was slightly protruded with tightly packed red buttons that glowed when a button on its back was pressed, its thick metallic legs crawled in the forward direction.
When he talked about it with Remi, her face instantly lit up and she rushed to the drawer, seeing to it that she didn't injure herself this time, taking out the toy with increasing recklessness.
Anis found himself startled when she rushed in. He wasn't afraid that she'd get hurt which he normally was, it was something else that felt off.
She put it on the ground impatiently and watched it move, slowly and unsteady with a surprised face. Soon enough she was tampering with it, as she moved it, the only outside source of light reflected off of its body ever so slightly and stung Anis in the eye.
The floorboard's creaking came just as quickly as Remi's hand that clutched and pulled the toy away from anywhere near Anis who had reached for it while his eyes were still recovering from the weak flashbang.
He laughed in a low voice, "I'm not going to take the toy away from you Remi" But the sudden tightness he felt, even if little, in his heart just grew worse the more callously Remi touched the toy. She may end up damaging it.
She was running her hands on its buttons. Pinching its legs. Flicking at its metallic round white eyes.
"Hey! Aniss! Let go of it!"
He was grabbing at the toy, pulling. What was he doing? He didn't know himself but it didn't feel right to let go. He felt as if, for the first time in his life, that toy belonged to him. That Brother Ethan had brought the toy for him. So he pulled harder and Remi didn't back down. Soon enough the tug of war was in favor of the boy and he fell back slightly when he won. Getting back on his feet, he held the toy up in his palm, reaching as high as he could so Remi couldn't take it from him.
"Why! Anis! You always give me our toys! Give it to me!"
"No!" He shouted back in what felt like ages.
She didn't back down, rushing at him with full speed, her head collided with his stomach and he recoiled, the toy descending ever so slightly. She leapt to take it from him, too bad his hand was just fast enough to jump back up again and run to the other end of the room which wasn't even five big steps away.
When he did though, as expected, Remi chased after him. Soon enough it was a cacophony of the screaming of the old floor and cries of, "Give it to me" and "No!" all the way around.
"Ow!" Remi fell down first when the nauseating effect reached its peak.
"Remi!" Even he couldn't let his sister fall and watch, so he ran forward not remembering that he was sprinting in circles as well. Kelly fell to his death, shattering, then scattering all across the floor.
It was a fragile toy. Though it was from brother, so the con didn't matter. Better yet, it was meant to be fragile. Maybe that was he had given it to Anis, so that he could care for it properly and not break it in a week. That was why he had spent his money to get him a present so he could cherish it.
And now it lay on the ground in pieces and with no glue in sight.
No.
Even if there was any glue he wouldn't have it like that. It had already broken, what his brother had give him was already gone and he could try to fix it piece by piece but it wouldn't be the same. It could never be.
He held himself back, his sister though, didn't have any such capabilities. Hot tears streamed down her face without stop. She was wailing.
Anis tried to calm her down, some part of him was yelling at him to not do it that she did this to herself, why was he feeling like this?
His hands that were to cup her face were slapped away and she rolled back on the floor sobbing loudly.
It wasn't until a person stepped through from the other room what their little tragedy was interrupted.
She got up as fast as she could and ran up to him, locking her arms on his neck and being lifted up, trying to touch the ceiling all in just a few seconds.
"Anis broke the toy!"
"Is that right? So? What were you doing with that poor clanker your 'brother' brought you?"
Anis's breath hitched. He loved his father deeply, nothing could change that ever. Yet it felt like for the first time, he felt a tinge of pain in his heart, he was getting angry at his own father.
"Yes. Remi didn't give it to me so it broke. It was mine in the first place."
His father grew worried, not angry.
"Anis...you the same kid that gave all of his saved up money so your sister could buy some dang useless teddy right? You alright little man?"
He snorted, "I'm fine."
"If you did that in front of your mother she'd have given you the stick you know that right?"
Anis grimaced in frustration, "I know."
"And not a bit of fear." He put Remi down and slapped his palm to his temple, "I ain't liking what your 'brother' is doing to my Family, son."
"It isn't brother's fault!" He voiced, soon after realizing what he had done he apologized and looked down at the floor. Tears were welling up, he tried to hold them back as much as he could. Father was already stressed, he didn't want to annoy him more. Though part of him felt relief as well, if he hadn't been near crying he might've been subjected to the rare beatings from his father that were growing more common the more he spent time at home.
He didn't go out much anymore. When he did, he didn't look happy even once. There were only two emotions that Anis had captured in the past weeks or so. His father would come home with either fatigue running over him and his lips reaching for the tablets in his pocket that he didn't even bother to take with water and just chewed, or the more frequent one of sadness. One that almost always stemmed from a sense of powerlessness that Anis couldn't quite understand yet. He was peeling the layers of it slowly though, the way his father staggered back home at days. The times he wouldn't be bothered to leave his room and stare at the box TV for hours on end with a bottle in his hand. His stomach had grown much larger as well too.
The bald spot on his head had also grown larger all the while the specks of white hair on his beard has increased.
Was he growing that old? Anis wondered.
"Alright, alright. How bout we play something? We haven't played in a while have we?"
He sat both of them on the floor, gesturing for them to be quiet. He said he had a surprise for them.
He returned all smiles with both of his hands behind his back hiding something precious.
When he wandered closer, he slowly brought his hands upfront and revealed a small red car, one of its headlights broken and the sides had their colour scraped off.
His introspection from across the room, which granted wasn't much of a distance yet, he knew that upon closer inspection he would find its grainy tires reattached with glue, the back ones unable to spin at all, the springs being too loose to function and the way it would slide instead of actually rolling.
What was fascinating here was not the toy itself, it was the dedication, thought Anis. Their father hadn't bought them anything in some time, maybe this was him trying to reconcile.
Remi didn't think like that though.
"Dad! It's tire came off!"
"Hmm? That's easily fixable!" He said, trying to keep his voice as cool as he could and mashed the tire to the car, he pulled out a glue stick from his pocket as if he had been anticipating this would happen.
Remi had other plans though. She was sulking. Again. Crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks in what would normally be comical, she dragged herself away from her father with no intention of apologizing.
Anis could see the blank expression on his face, the way his eyes shuddered ever so slightly and he completely stopped moving, he could still feel the warm exhales from his mouth and the distinct smell of beer that overwhelmed his nostrils.
"Do you not like it too, Anis?" His voice was flat.
"-Huh? Umm....I like it, it's a good present father. Thank you." He said, trying to sound the best he could.
"What the hell is with that SORRY VOICE!" He roared up, his hands were clutching at the last remaining patches of hair on his head before he slammed his temple in final strike, "Both of you...I'm sorry. I'm fine." He said to an Anis who was coming closer in order to comfort him, sidelining how scared he felt.
"I said I'm fine Anis. Get off."
"Why are you yelling at him!"
It was Remi's voice that had forced him to lift his eyes, before he could say anything he continued blabbering until Anis had to step in and cover her mouth.
"And here I thought I could have a good time with my own kids. Guess only money matters in both of your eyes now too aye?"
"Father! Thats- That's not she meant! She was just angry and.."
"I get your games son, I would be defending my sister if she did something shitty as well." He said dismissively.
"Why are you like this!" She shouted, instantly rising to her feet with her face red and tears free falling from her face. Anis stopped her again but their father didn't bother being angry. His eyes lingered on them for a while before turning around languidly and wandering off somewhere in the distance.
Remi took this chance.
She ran out of the house while wiping the tears off her face. Determined to find her mother and bring her back all so she could hide her face in her mother's arms, maybe complain to her about how badly their father yelled at them, how he didn't care for then because he got them a broken toy he probably had stolen.
She ran through the trodden streets and through the dirt paths. The houses lined up one after another, their roofs of rusted corrugated metals and not a single window to allow any lights to enter. The lack of any light poles would never allow someone to know that there was even electricity in this region and that too had been fluctuating uncontrollably.
She ran forward where she expected to the find the same brick wall, an apathetic separation that would lead her to the road and out to the streets. She didn't know where their mothers worked but she planned on finding out, she would find her no matter what.
What she saw though was barbed wire covering the entire length of wall and going higher.
She looked around her, the cold air and the dirt path beneath her bare feet. The winds were chilling and she was barely wearing any warm clothes, only a sweater that she had gotten from Anis and a pair of pants carried over from the summer. Beyond the wires she could see the empty streets with cars passing occasionally through them and inside the wire she could see a group of soldiers that had spotted her.
One of them who had spotted her was a man, not a strand of hair on his face except his eyebrows. He looked at her with surprise on his face that turned to amusement. He said something to the others beside him and soon enough they were all looking at her with interested eyes.
She felt scared and she stepped back. She didn't want to leave though. Her father was back home and he was upset, what if he beat her again.
She chose to stare back at them, the solider who initiated the entire farce raised his eyebrows and nodded to the others, then he looked back at her.
She ignored the footsteps that were nearing her from the behind,
He raised both his arms.
He formed a circle using his thumb and index finger then inserted the finger from his left hand into it repeatedly.
She didn't understand what he was doing. Anis was nagging at her from the behind, shaking her shoulder yelling at her to come back home or father would be worried.
The man from before was up now. He was walking somewhere, coming closer and closer.
He stopped lower in order to meet her eyes asking her something. She didn't hear it or no her ears simply didn't register the sound. Anis was being much more persistent now, shouting and screaming at her to move but she wasn't budging easily. He picked up a stone and threw it at the man's face who didn't even flinch when it hit his cheek.
The man raised his arm and was reaching somewhere. Was it for something behind her? A new toy behind her ear that was completely new? Something she could play together with Anis? Was he going to tell her where her mother was?
None of her questions were answered as a large hand, much darker and rougher than her own struck the man on his arms. He grimaced before looking up and smiling mischievously.
"Even the worst of lambs have their owner I suppose?"
"Get the hell out of my sight."
"We aren't in your sight 'sir'. That daughter of yours if she's even yours tried to run out the barricade. She was free kill outside of that you know right?"
"I know so don't come near her."
"Aren't you trying to act like a big man? Do you not see which one of us has the gun?"
"I can see it alright." He said without a hitch in his voice. His eyes were raging, "We won't come here so don't come any damn closer."
"Oh? What if I decided to do so? I can't really allow you to come so close to breaking the laws here."
"You ain't gonna like what happens." Was his final verdict.
"That's great then!" He turned back, "Hey! We've got company!"
Anis saw even his father flinch slightly when the man called for other men in the green uniform.
"Son." He was saying without looking back, "run."
"W-What?"
"I'll be back alright? You take Remi and run back home and close the door. Don't let anyone in."
"...D-daddy what are you?"
"Just go!" His loud voice was more than painful than enraged, "Go now son, I'll be fine. I won't die in this shitty place. I've got a wife and kids to look after."
The only thing Anis could do was close his eyes and nod. He had to hold back his own tears and slap his legs to make them move so they could actually run.
He ran as fast as he could through the narrow streets of cloth lined on strings not so high above, the small houses of corrugated roofs and no windows, the endless chatter of people that seamlessly blended together yet in the end was drowned out by the overbearing smell he was used to. It was present even if it smelled like nothing, like a constant sting someone gets used to.
He opened the dark wooden door of their house and when inside Anis shut the door instantly, locking it from the sides he could.
Looking back after the entire frenzy, he found Remi sitting, leaning against one of the walls with her knees buried to her chest, trying to hide from something that she couldn't really make out.
But Anis knew. He knew the look on the man's face. He knew how he had looked at his sister as he said something vile about her body.
He wished he had thrown more stones. Knocked him over so that Daddy wouldn't have had to step in.
The only other thing on his mind were only thoughts of his father, how he would be fighting the other men. How valiantly he'd be punching each of them in the guts and reprimanded them for saying that to his daughter.
How he'd be getting beaten to a pulp.
He imagined all the ways his father could outsmart all of them and all of his conclusions were outlandish even to a kid like him. He was worried, worse yet he was crying with his sister. He didn't want their father to be hurt, the complications that had arisen between them could've only been fixed with time. He'd be ready to wait as long as that time required if he meant wouldn't have to be so powerless in such a situation.
Not knowing at the instant what was happening kept his eyes peeled open at all times. Remi was already on the floor though her sobs were slowly quietening and soon enough in a matter of three hours she'd be asleep on the floor itself, curled up like the child she was.
He never left her side the entire time and kept on staring at the door and through the boarded windows. He looked everywhere he could with ever second expecting his father to suddenly appear at any of them, then he'd come inside and yell at them for leaving him behind. How selfish both of them were to never even consider their father's well being.
His posture stiffened when there was a bang on the door. He looked through the windows and then unlocked the door, allowing the cool air to come inside only through the sides, the rest being unable to do due to the size of the man standing on the door.
He looked mangled. His left eye had gone black, the clothes he wore had had been torn apart from all sides and blood was trickling from what could barely be considered as his mouth.
His lips curled.
And like a clown after a circus of beatings, he was smiling joyfully like he was enjoying ever second of it.