08: The Sy's Mansion (Part 2)

*** 

THE YEAR 2007 

Inna held Justin's hand as she guided it towards the kitchen to drag him along with her. Justin looked through his mother who is walking fast towards the other hallway and out of his sight. He looked down and shifted his eyes again towards Inna. Inna looked at him and smiled. 

"Where are we going, Inna?" Justin asked her while they are walking towards the wide kitchen that holds a 10-chair white, porcelain dinner table, a kitchen counter, the upgraded and high technology appliances that he made him amazed by the richness of the Sy. 

"Just stay here at the kitchen, hmm. I will help the cooks out there," Inna said when they stopped at the entrance of the kitchen while she was crouching down. Justin nodded at her even though he didn't understand why he would be all alone in the kitchen of the Sy's mansion while the cooks are roaming around the counter, cooking different cuisines for the family. 

Justin observed the cooks, maybe some of them are multi-awarded chefs because they are dressed in white, with a Toque Blanche adorned their heads while they are stirring a sauce with their professional's hands. 

He saw how the chefs piled up a plate in the counter, applying parsley and mustard on one plate and pepper on the other. Justin looked at the hallway towards the back of the grand staircase and looked at Inna again. She is so busy, she can't even look at Justin to check where is he. 

Justin shrugged and gripped his backpack with the faded face of Lightning McQueen from the movie of Cars that his mother bought from a small place in the market for a cheap price. He darted his eyes everywhere, even the back of the grand staircase is so elegant for him. 

Justin will wander the whole mansion alone without Inna and his mother noticing. He looked at the tables, the vases that are crafted by the most expensive sculpturist he would know, and caressed it with his left hand while looking at the frames that hung above the wall. He stopped at one of them and looked thoroughly. 

They looked so formal, the way they smiled progress a continuous success in it that everyone would envy. The background of their picture is color blue as if it were taken in a studio. The father who is called Paul Sy is as young as he would look. No traces of aging can be seen in his happy face. The mother is as blooming as Justin would have imagined. She is so beautiful with long hair on, with elegant clothes that made her looked so luxurious, having to marry a rich and privileged man. The four children have been sitting down with their hands crossed formally in their laps and their backs are straight. Their chins are tilted up high, making their smiles so proud of what they have in their life. 

Justin scrutinized the faces of the three children but when his eyes landed on the youngest one, maybe a 4-year-old kid who didn't know what is happening, he suddenly felt the begrudge he has been holding when he realized it is Danny Sy. The one that his mother babysits from which she got her high salary to feed them. 

He has an oval face, but symmetrical with his narrow eyes, pointed nose, and thick lips. Even though he was just a kid, his looks will really charm everybody. Justin furrowed his eyebrows as he looked away. 

"Why do I have to live in this way? Danny is a little too far at me," Justin mumbled to himself. He didn't look again in the picture and started to walk. Inna must have not noticed him not around in the kitchen and didn't even care. 

He started to go upstairs through the grand staircase. He looked at his feet and saw his shadow through the stairs. It was a long track towards the second floor, but he made it and exhaled. Justin held his knees while looking at both hallways. It looks like he is in a hotel with several rooms that lined up the walls. 

"Wow," Justin whispered to himself out of his astonishment. The floors of it are filled with furry like carpets that are the same as the one he saw from the coffee table downstairs underneath. He walked slowly towards the right hallway and observed the lanterns lined up the middle of the creamy painted wall as it lit down. It gave a shimmering color in the hallway as the same as the chandelier on the first floor. 

Justin soothed the lanterns and known by touch that it is extravagant to an average kid like him. He gasped and looked at the end of the hallway. 

He creased his forehead as he heard a mumbled conversation inside of one of the bedrooms. He walked, careful enough to not make a noise, and moved inch by inch towards the third to the last bedroom on the right side. He saw that the door is ajar. 

"I miss you, Jane. No one feeds me better than you," Danny said then giggled. Justin heard it outside and got surprised. It is Danny who talked, the one his mother babysits for 5 years now. 

"Hmm, do I have to be here every day?" His mother asked Danny. Justin continued to eavesdrop in their conversation even though he felt his heartache. His mother knew how to care for Danny, but for her own kid, Justin didn't feel like it. 

"Yes. I don't want the other maids. You are my favorite Nanny," Danny said that made Justin's tears fell in his cheeks without even realizing it. He held his right chest where his heart is placed and felt the pain in it. He felt his breath quickens, his lips quiver and he felt his shoulders shaking. 

Justin produced tears silently and it continuously flowed through his face. He plunked his head down while still holding his chest and ran away downstairs. He opened the grand entrance door and ran as fast as he could inside the mansion's garden and hide there. 

***

"Why did he ran away? I know all of you are confused about what Justin feels right now. Can someone answer that question?" Justin asked the class as they progress deeper into the story. He raised his hands and looked at every child. Someone's hands shot up in the air and Justin shifted his eyes towards it. He realized that it is the kid who has been lurking around the corner wall of the classroom, wanted to be a ghost. 

He nodded towards the kid, and he stood up silently. 

"He felt the resentment and at the same time, the pain. When Justin heard his mother's conversation with Danny, for him it feels like... his mother loved Danny than him," the boy explained while sadness is overlooking his poker face earlier. Justin looked at his eyes thoroughly and reflect on what he had been feeling when he was still a kid. Justin smiled slowly and nodded at him. 

"That is exactly what he is feeling," Justin said to the class as the boy sat down and the silence erupted again. 

*** 

THE YEAR 2007 

Justin halted in the right corner of the garden and looked back while the tears are still welling up. He held his knees again and slunk down slowly through the wet, trimmed, and green grass. Heavy tears poured down as much as he wiped it hastily. He looked towards the right side of the mansion and sobbed. 

The entrance of the garden area is filled with sunflowers only. Towards the back of the mansion, most of the plants are planted there. The garden is like a big dome, a greenhouse where the sunlight goes through the roof of glass. The gardener must have been inside the mansion because Justin is all alone in the garden. He saw the wind whistling through the outside and felt the cold breeze even though the sun rays is raging in the east. 

There was a small pond in the center, and the water bubbled in and out of it as the fishes swarmed the warm water. 

"She loved Danny not as much as she loved me," Justin mumbled while crying. He curled up into a fetal position, bowed his head down on his knees, and closed his eyes. He didn't notice the beauty of the garden as his morning is filled with grief. 

Justin's mind is crumpled in different situations. He can't read, he can't write, he can't even spell out his name and he can't count numbers. Even though he tried so much, his dyslexia and dyscalculia hinder it. Why does he have to live in a miserable life like this? Why does he have to envy a small rich kid with the attention he is getting from his own mother? 

When he is sobbing uncontrollably and his shoulders are still shaking, someone patted his back. He was so surprised and looked up from his knees. 

He was astonished to see a girl wearing a pink dress and her hair is tied up with a pink ribbon. She is dressed finely, and she looked rich because of her white skin. Her hazel eyes said so for Justin. 

"It's okay, you can go it through," the girl said while patting his back. Justin looked at her and observed her eyes. The girl smiled and stood up. She held her hand out. Justin looked at her again. When he was about to reach it, someone shouted in the corner of the mansion.

"Marian! What are you doing over there?!" A woman in her middle age that is wearing a skirt and suit ran towards the girl and held her in her shoulders. 

"I've been looking for you, where have you been?" The woman asked the girl as she held its face. The woman sighed and darted her eyes at Justin. 

"What are you doing over there, kid? C'mon get up," the woman said and hustled him to stand up on his feet. She shook off the dirt on his shorts as Justin looked at the girl. She smiled at him and looked at the woman. 

"Why are you here? Where is your mother, huh?" The woman asked him anxiously. Justin just locked his gaze towards the woman for a moment when someone yelled in the corner again. 

"Justin!" His mother shouted and ran towards the entrance of the garden. The woman looked at Jane as she exhaled. 

"Is he your kid? Marian wanders around the house and saw him curling in the grass," the woman said to Jane. As she looked at Justin, she felt that she is the one responsible for this. 

"Thank you, Ma'am Marilyn. I thought he got lost," Jane said then shifted her eyes towards Justin. The woman that Jane called as Ma'am Marilyn nodded and guided Marian out of the garden. Marian looked at Justin as they are walking out of the garden and Justin did the same. 

"Justin, why are you here? I've been looking for you!" Jane shouted at Justin and slapped him on his back. Justin cried and wiped it hastily. 

"You don't even care about me!" Justin shouted back at his mother. 

"Justin, what are you---" 

"You brought me here, but you just cared about Danny!" Justin yelled while looking up at his mother. He stomped his feet and went outside of the garden as his mother swiveled around. She grabbed Justin's arms and faced him. 

"Did I taught you to answer sharply at me?!" Jane shouted at her kid. Justin just glared at her. 

"Don't look at me like that! I didn't teach you to be disrespectful, huh?!" Jane shouted at Justin. Her breath quickens and Jane felt that her world would crash when she heard those words coming from Justin. 

"Did I teach you that? Huh?! Why are you responding like that to me?" Jane asked him. Justin just looked down and cried quietly. Jane slapped his hands, but not that hard as Justin felt, and tears brimmed in her eyes. 

"I'm sorry, mom," Justin said quietly and Jane hugged him tightly. They both cried in silence as Inna is inside, looking for them on where the two went.