Mockingbird

Tony sighed and stretched, he had been washing cars all day. It wasn’t so easy for him, ever since he lost his small restaurant business due to a huge debt he couldn’t pay.

He was a college dropout and that was because he had no money to finance his education now that he was totally broke, back then when his restaurant business was booming, he forgot about education and now he needed it the most.

Being a dropout made it difficult for him to get jobs, and he ended up washing cars.

The problem was, he had a wife at home, a woman he married when he was still comfortable, they loved each other so much. Her name was Lilian Anderson, Tony loved her so much that he’d do anything for her. But this sudden turn of events made him unable to take care of his wife like he used to.

He had started building a house six months after they married, she was so happy when she saw that the man she loved was building her dream house. It was also his dream house, wasn’t something that elaborate, was just a four bedroom duplex apartment in the outskirts of the city.

It was about a year and a half now, and Tony had lost all he had, all he ever worked for, everything was gone except one of his old Nissan trucks. He sold everything he had to repay the loan even the house he was building was taken from him.

It was Lilian who was paying the rent now, she was a graduate of accounting, Tony had helped her with her fees for her remaining years in college and now she was working in a big company and earning a decent salary.

The fact that she was now the provider wasn’t something Tony was proud of, he loved Lilian with everything he had; so it ate him up inside to see that he couldn’t provide for her.

“Wash the damn car, you lazy wretched slug,” his boss yelled, jolting Tony back from his reverie.

Tony lowered his head in a gesture of apology, the car wash job was the only one he could get even though he was an undergraduate, or well; a dropout, no one wanted to employ a dropout.

Before he dropped out he was studying computer engineering, and Tony had made up his mind to set up his own company when he’s done with school, he had no idea how he was going to do it, but it was his dream and the restaurant business covered his dream and now that it has collapsed, he was back to dreaming his long lost dream.

“Thinking about that gyal, lazyass?” One of the other boy workers sneered at him, using a kinda slang for girl.

Tony remained silent, he wasn’t so moved with the mockery anymore, even though he was way older than any of the boys here. They were prolly teenagers, who just wanted the money for games or whatever.

Being an orphan made him able to withstand abuse and mockery, he had a lot of that when he was in high school and even his short time in college.

The only person, Tony had that was a relative was his grandmother, she was so old now and had been admitted at the home of the elderly,

“Leave the old man be, Hakeem, he could be older than your father,” another of the boys chipped in a teaser and the rest burst out laughing.

The laughter got to Tony’s heart, and he felt a sharp tingling pain in his chest, but what could he do, even his boss had a grin on his face.

Instead of shunning the boys, his boss was grinning, that made Tony very angry but he was unable to do anything as he scrubbed the tires of the Mercedes Benz he was cleaning.

“How old are you sir?” The boys weren’t done with Tony, they still had a lot more mockery under their sleeves.

“He’s probably forty, a fool at forty I guess,” Hakeem added gasoline to the already burning fire, making it a lot bigger.

The boys laughter was all over the open space where the car wash was located.

Tony swallowed hard and tried to calm himself down, when he was young, he could take all these because the boys who mocked him were his age mates, but now it was a little harder because he was prolly way older than them.

“You’d be such a wretched illiterate to be working in a car wash man,” another of the boys continued with the insults.

“I wonder if he has a wife,” Hakeem chipped in, asking a rhetorical question.

“How can a dirty, poor and stupid person like this have a wife, I mean what kind of woman would want him,” the other guy responded to Hakeem, and all the boys couldn’t hold their laughter, even the boss chuckled.

“Did you know he has been wearing this pair of worn out sneakers since he started working here,” Hakeem revealed, laughing uncontrollably.

Tony couldn’t take it any longer, he was so filled with rage, he threw the brush on the ground and stormed to where the boys were.

“If any of you dare make fun of me or insult me again, you’ll see what a poor man can do,” Tony raged, panting slowly.

“What the fuck is wrong with this poor lunatic, you think we’re scared of you?” As soon as Hakeem finished talking, he felt a blow coming towards his cheekbones and then it stopped.

It was the boss, he held Tony back from hitting him, Hakeem knew if the punch had touched him, it would have sent him to the ground.

“Are you out of your mind? You really want to hit a teenage boy, I can’t have you here anymore, Tony. You’re fired, go home.” The boss yelled, freeing Tony from his grip and walking back to where he had been sitting.

Tony heaved a frustrated sigh, he knew he had fucked up. But he just couldn’t take it any longer.

“Give me one more chance, I won’t try to hit any of the boys again,” Tony pleaded, following behind the boss.

“You’re fired, Tony, Get the fuck out of here, wretched moron!” The boss stood by his decision, frowning.

Tony sighed and walked briskly to his old Nissan truck, humiliated and fired, he had never been this embarrassed and humiliated.

Now he no longer has his job.

He was about to drive off when the boys started splashing water all over his truck.

“Won’t you like to wash this old truck, we can make it new again sir,” they laughed and splashed soap and water on the truck.

Tony drove off in anger, he sighed when he reached the highway, he had just been fired, but he was a little thankful that the boss had stopped him from hitting Hakeem, he might have been arrested for assault.

He was finally becoming more wretched than he was, without the little income from the car wash, he wouldn’t even be able to feed or clothe himself and would have to depend on Lilian. Something he despised doing.

After a few hours of driving through traffic, he got home.

Lilian’s car was in the garage when Tony drove in, he normally came home before her most days; so he was a little surprised to see the vehicle.

Maybe she just wanted a little rest, he thought. He parked his truck next to his wife’s Mercedes and hopped out, starting straight for the door of the storey building house.

The door wasn’t locked so he opened it.

One unique thing about the house was that the dining room was facing directly opposite to the entrance door, which means, anyone who enters would first see the dining hall from the doorway.

And when Tony entered, he saw Lilian seated there, with a bottle of what looked like scotch or maybe vodka; her head was bowed to the table and there was a white printed paper next to the bottle of vodka.

On hearing the sound of the door, Lilian raised her head up and their eyes met…..