Eli!!!, – why isn't my toilet washed and why are you still holding that damn key. Selva asked, walking into the kitchen and snatching the key from his hands.
"Didn't you play when you were little?" Now you are actually acting dramas and creating scenarios in your head?"
"I am so sorry, the toilet totally slipped my mind, – I just thought you would be hungry, so I decided to prepare lunch now. I also wanted Elara to have something to eat when she gets home, – please can I have the key back." Eli responded, dropping the bowl he had just sieved down, stretching his hands to retrieve his key from Selva's hands.
"Don't you dare touch me with those filthy hands, and I need you to stay 5 meters away from me. – Hope you watched those hands properly before thinking of touching our meal. Selva spoke, taking further steps away from Eli.
"That key really shouldn't be in your hands, Mrs Morreau." Eli said, his voice cold making Selva to flinch in fear involuntarily. "It's too disgusting, and a proper lady shouldn't be holding on to garbage like that. When I am done here, I will dispose of the key properly, away from your lovely eyes." Eli continued, his tone going back to its usual submissive and obedient self.
"Yes, Yes, you are definitely right, — for once, I can agree with you on something." Selva responded, her normal cocky and arrogant face shining as she threw the key on the ground.
"Hope you don't mind that I threw it on the ground, but you should know your dirty self, shouldn't come close to my esteemed self." Selva added.
"Too bad your daughter loves coming in contact with me." Eli muttered under his breath as he went down on his knees to pick the key Selva had just thrown.
Selva stared smugly at Eli's bent head, when she heard the words Eli had spoken.
"What did you say?"
Eli froze, not daring to repeat what he had just said, it hadn't been his intention for Selva to hear him, so when she had asked him to repeat his statement ,he froze, thinking of a lie he could come up with that would pacify her. He knew if he were to repeat what he had said, Selva would find something to complain about to Elara, and that was going to break Elara's heart, something he didn't want to see happening.
"I thought so, I knew there was no way in your right senses, you would be able to talk to me from below. Selva spoke, pleased that Eli did not have the courage to repeat his words.
Seeing no further way to bully Eli, she stomped her feet and left the kitchen in anger, not forgetting to remind him about the toilet he still had to wash.
Eli stared at Selva's retreating figure, breathing out in relief, he brought out the key he had placed in his pocket, hoping and wishing that it would lead it out of this miserable life as he stared at it, but he immediately moved the thought out of his mind, who was he kidding, he had been poor and an orphan for the most part of his life, why did he think a key and a letter was going to suddenly change his life.
"Where are you going?" Selva turned her head from the series she was watching to face Eli that was about stepping out the house.
"Going to look for some manual jobs, I can take on. I don't feel comfortable sitting around while Elara isn't around." Eli, responded, saying half the truth, he really didn't want to be home doing nothing while Elara was probably out, discussing business ideas with her grandma, but he wasn't going to look for manual jobs, he was planning to go to his fosters homes and see if he could find any information about the key that sat in his pocket. He had tried it on all his belongings that he had brought with him, also on the household materials and appliances while Selva hadn't been paying attention, but it didn't seem to fit.
"Are you done with the meal you were to prepare?" Selva asked, not willing to let Eli out of her sight.
"Yes Selva." Eli responded, already unbolting the door.
"Did you remember to wash my toilet?" Selva asked again, turning her attention back to her Tv.
"Yes,--- I would be back late incase Elara asks for me when she comes home." Eli responded, leaving immediately before Selva could think of more tasks to give him.
Eli's first stop was the home he had been moved to in his teenage years, but after thorough search and hostile reception from his foster parents and siblings, he decided to leave.
Not having much hope, he decides to pay the parents he thought were his birth parents all his life of growing up, till he had turned sixteen a visit.
"Eli!!!. – we didn't think we would see you again." Evelyn Hart, Eli's foster Mom, squealed from the doorway as she stared at Eli, trying hard to conceal her shock as she stared at the son she thought she had lost forever.
"Come in, – come in." "Why are you breathing so much?" Evelyn asked, ushering Eli in.
Eli had also answered the surname Hart, till he found out that Evelyn and Franklin Hart were not his real parents, so he had decided to stick with his own surname, not after some interrogations from him.
"Where have you been , where did you run off to?, – don't you know you made mommy worry" Evelyn inquired, looking at Eli as she checked his body for injuries.
"I couldn't accept the fact that I was an orphan, so I had gone in search for my real parents, somehow I ended up in an orphanage, and I got adopted again, I am sorry for making you worry, but I just couldn't gather enough courage to face you people after I had run away and I thought it would be best if I didn't come back." Eli replied, looking at the one woman that hadn't treated him cruelly as tears pulled in his eyes.
"Eli…, you would always be my son, and this home is always open to you, – your father isn't home now, but I am certain he would be excited to see you again." Evelyn responded, pulling him in for a hug, she didn't question why he had shown up today after all these years, she was merely happy to see him.
"Would you mind if I stayed for a while?" Eli asked, stepping fully into the house, the floorboard squeaking under his feet. His mind raced as he thought of how he would tell his Mom that he was married and tha
t he was here because of a key he had picked on the road.