Alter Ego —
unwilling companion
Fiction October Monthly Theme- Family
We were on the terrace.
No, there was no one else there at that time. Just both of us.
Yes, I had gone to see him that morning.
Why? Just to say hello?
After 10 years? Just like that?
Yes!
I had said.
Actually, I had always wondered about my own motive in visiting him, especially at that time when I was down in the doldrums, and he, he was at the top of the game!
That morning, mother had mentioned his name, as she always did, a few times a day, telling me, that Robbie had asked for me. I didn’t take it seriously. But then she said it a couple of times, so I decided to visit him.
I wanted to see him and check him out. Checking myself, what was so magical about him!
My childhood friend, Robbie!!
We had gone to school together! Kindergarten, then primary and finally high school, and then our ways had parted.
I can’t say that we had been great friends, friends, but we knew each other well.
We had become known to each other at age 4, when our mothers had become friends.
We had started school together, and in the beginning, we sat together and played together too. But as time went by, we had become a bit distant.
By the time we were in year 4, I think.
He was at the top of the class, and I!!
I was just no body!
And it remained like this for the next 10 years!
Mother was able to keep me in that elite school, with no help from me!! I was not good at anything. Study, sport, drama, nothing! Just average!
And Robbie!!
He was the best, the most intelligent, studious, hard-working student in class.
A rich and dead father, and a smart mum!
I on the other hand, father absent and mother, a woman of limited means, who somehow managed to give good education to her two kids. My sister and I!
And Robbie, whether he was actually my friend or not, lived in my life, with me. Yes, in my life, a constant reminder of my limitations.
Mother always gave me his example, to inspire me to do better. And my sister, Soni, two years younger to us, just adored him. And had from the day when she had decided at 4 years age, that she had two brothers.
She even called us both Bobbie!! Mixing us!!
And Robbie, earned that admiration, adoration, 100 percent. So, I could never ever begrudge him.
He remembered, while I always forgot, Soni’s birthday, her first day at high school, her first and the last day of final exam, the day of her performance, Soni was in drama, her prom, ringing her, sending her a card, flowers, organising a limousine to pick her and drop her, till the day she went to university, and left the town, Robbie made sure that Soni never felt that she lacked a brother’s attention, that I couldn’t give her.
It wasn’t only money, that he naturally had plenty of, but his care that people admired.
He did, what I didn’t.
That I couldn’t!
So, when he asked me to come that morning, I was first thinking, no, I don’t have time to go.
Then mother rang me and asked me to pop over, as she wanted to discuss an important issue with me. Something to do with, yes, Robbie!!
So, I just said I’m not free!
“What!!”
But she didn’t further press me.
And I went.
Did you see him?
Oh yes, I did. We spent time catching up!
After all, 10 years had passed.
And Robbie?
Did he tell you anything about his plan?
I didn’t like this interrogation, but just shook my head.
So, where’s he now, where’s Robbie?
Even I wanted to know!!
As his secretary keeps asking me to sign so many documents, and I!
I look at my handwriting and keep wondering.
Oh, where’s Robbie!!
This fictional piece is in response to Promptly Witten’s October Theme.
ADEOLA SHEEHY-ADEKALE writes that:
The theme for October is family.
Family can mean a lot of different things and trigger very different responses. We have chosen families as well as the families we were born into or raised by.
Thanks, ADEOLA SHEEHY-ADEKALE, I am using the Monthly Spark
Do you have siblings? How have your relationships to them changed over time? Or do you have brothers or sisters who started as friends but are now so much more?
