"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? They did look rather haggard. Perhaps they did not sleep well last night and were not thinking straight. Yes, I told myself, that's got to be it. That was the only logical reason that I could come up with.
"Enough of this!" shouted my father. "Raymond, you go to your room for the rest of the day. Michal finish chopping the wood and then go feed the chickens, clean their coop and then go feed the pigs and muck their stall, then come back and mother or I will tell you what else we 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 and out of his chair then walked out of the room. Mother gave us a look of disappointment, 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. I honestly felt bad for him. That was a lot to get done in one day I would not be surprised if he was unable to finish it all today. Sure those were tasks that were done regularly, but usually by two or three of use. To do all of that alone would be awful.
At least Ray just had to stay in his room, though I don't imagine father would going to make it pleasant for him. He probably would keep all the windows open in the room so it would be cold in there all day. I knew for sure from my own experience that he would take away any books, puzzles, and anything thing else entertaining that was in the room.
Ben had it the easiest. Ray, father, and him had done almost the exact same task yesterday, but I knew that that was on purpose. Ben hated pointless tasks the most, so when ever he was in trouble that was what father would give him. Last time Ben was in trouble, for what I never found out, he had to wash all the clothes and linens in the house. The day before had been laundry day so nothing was actually dirty. He nearly lost his mind from frustration.
"Don't worry, Sue," said Ben, "they're only mad at us not you just like usual." That made me mad. Was now really the time to be picking at me. Was he angry that I hadn't stood up for them? Why on earth would he think that would have done that!?!
"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 frustrated 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! Yes they were always asking to go with mother and father when they left, but I never thought… well I didn't know what I thought at this point.
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 was my reality, and I had a hard time seeing past that because of that this revelation hit me even harder.
Tears ran down my cheeks as 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. It had already come slipped my mind that father had told us not leave the mountain. Honestly at that moment, even if I had remembered I wouldn't have cared. I almost never broke the rules and even when I did it was usually by accident, but at that moment I was beyond caring about anything. I just needed a task to focus on and I was the only one not given something to do, so I found something to do myself.
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 hadn't eaten any 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.