"Raymond!" mother and father shouted at the same time.
I stared at Ray wide. I could not believe he questioned father like that.
Mikey then made the not so bright decision to chime in. "Well is he wrong? If he is, please tell us. I'm sure I'll be more than happy to apologize if you prove him wrong."
I was completely completely lost on what was happening. I did not understand why they were questioning mother and father like this. It made no sense. The man came to our door was a complete stranger who did not know or did it seem like we trusted at least by mother and father's reaction. So why were my brothers taking his words to heart instead of my father's?
" Enough of this!" shouted my father. "Raymond, you go to your room for the rest of the day. You finish chopping the wood and then go feed the chickens clean their coop and then go feed the pigs and muck Their style and then come back to me and I'll tell you what else I have for you to do. Benjamin will spend the day, scrubbing the floors and sweeping all the walkways that we have around the farm. None of you are too speak of this anymore! I am going down the mountain and out the forest today to resolve this. I do not know when I'll be back so until then, listen to your mother."
Father then got up out of his chair and walked out of the room. Mother gave us a look of disappointment and then followed him.
Ray took me off his lap and then headed off to do what he was told.
"Man this sucks!" said Mike as he headed out to do as he was told as well.
"Don't worry, Sue," said Ben, " they're only mad at us not you just like usual."
" I don't care if they're mad at me. I'm just worried about you guys. I don't wanna lose you." I said in a panicked voice.
Ben smiled at me, but then left to do what he was told.
I was the only one left in the room. I just stood there stunned wondering what had just happened. our lives had always been simple and very mundane, but they were happy and safe. I was trying to rack my brain at how all of this could've happened so suddenly and how did I not see that my brothers weren't content with this life!
I couldn't understand their point of view. My father always said I was rather shortsighted in this regard. I had never been very good at understanding others point of view, and I had tried so hard to learn how to understand, but I never could. My own world is my reality, and I had a hard time seeing past that and because of that this revelation hit me even harder.
Tears to my cheek and I headed outside. I picked up my wicker basket and headed down the mountain to the forest to get the things we would need for our remedies.
I had hoped the walk down the mountain and into our forest would calm me down, but it did not. my hand holding the basket was shaking all the way down. I had any eaten breakfast yet, but I did not care the hunger eating at my stomach was the only thing keeping me from completely getting lost in my own own head.
When midday came, I still did not return. In fact I did not return home until well after sundown and even then I was hesitant to return. This was because I didn't know what I would be returning to.
I knew father wouldn't be home, but that wasn't too out of the ordinary between him and mother. He went down the mountain the most. I was worried my brothers would be raising a ruckus to my mother. That they would still want to leave.