Bartender! Another Insult, Please! Part 8

Beckett Reed and Samiyo Datoru

Original Characters 

Written by Snarks 

Beginning March 2014

Emira Datoru was just turning off her alarm clock when she was fully awakened by the sound of her youngest son screaming as though he were being boiled alive.  A sure sign that he'd done something to dam up Samiyo's endless supply of patience.

She rolled her eyes as their neighbor pounded on the wall and yelled at them to shut up.

"I can't believe you did that!  How dare you?!  You little..."

"Samiyo! Da nigba ti o ba wa ni wa niwaju!"  She called firmly as she got out of bed, wrapped a shawl around herself and walked quickly down the stairs to the living room where her two sons were shouting at each other.  (Stop while you're ahead!)

"Mama! Mama!  He's gonna kill me, Mama!  Get him away from me!"  Kanonu shouted, keeping the refrigerator between himself and his older brother. "Away from me! Away from me."  He repeated in a near whisper. "Keep him away. Away."

Emira closed her eyes.  'Nu was repeating himself, always a bad sign when he was upset, it usually led to him hitting himself on the head.  Sometimes it was a bid for sympathy, but most times it was real, and then she had to hold him until he calmed down.

"I'm not going to kill you, Nu, but you're gonna wish I had when I ..."

"Samiyo!"  Emira said loudly enough to be heard over the two of them.  

"Mama!  You don't know what he did!"

"Mama!  He's gonna kill me!  Gonna kill me!  Kill me!"  The boy's hands clenched and splayed repeatedly.  Yes, this was for real.

"You had no right..."

"I only wanted to help...to help..." Kanonu replied, his eyes unfocused and looking somewhere at the wall rather than his brother.

"Boys!"

"Tell him to stop!  Stop!  Stop! Tell him..."

"Tell him to stand still so I can..."

If there was one thing Emira disliked it was yelling.  She had made a point to bring her sons up by example, and rarely yelled, nor did she tolerate them yelling at each other unless it was in play, and outside the apartment.  Resorting to her second option, she picked up two sauce pans and clanged them together, wincing as their neighbor made it clear that he had both heard and disapproved of the noise coming from their apartment.

It did the trick however, and both of her sons stopped dead in their tracks. 

"Sit."  She ordered, pointing with one of the pans toward the couch.

"Mama..." Both boys said in tandem.

"Sit."  She said levelly as she put the pans on the counter before opening a drawer and taking out the dreaded wooden spoon.

"Make him sit first."  Kanonu said, still keeping the refrigerator between himself and his brother. "Make him sit first.  Sit first."  He said, looking somewhere over Sam's shoulder.

"Samiyo," was all his mother had to say.  He sat on the couch with a thunderous expression aimed at his little brother.  As usual, when he was particularly angry, he wished that Kanonu would go somewhere. Anywhere.

Emira motioned to Kanonu who then entered the room and sat on the love seat, eyes on his brother and ready to run if Sam so much as twitched a finger at him.

"Samiyo, tell me what happened."

"He's a big mouthed shi..."

Without a word, Emira picked the spoon up from where she'd placed it on the coffee table and advanced on him.  

"I'm sorry, Mama."  He said as he put up his hands in surrender.

"Samiyo?" She asked again.

"He called Beckett!  He's been calling him all along to 'chat'! He told Beckett... jeez Mama he told Beckett pretty much everything I've ever said about him!"

"I was only trying to help!"  Kanonu protested again. "Trying to help... to help..."

"Help!  You humiliated me!  I don't think I'll ever be able to look him in the eye again!  What were you thinking?"  Sam yelled at his brother.

Kanonu stubbornly refused to respond to his brother, focused his gaze on their mother and refused to speak to or acknowledge Sam, although they could both hear him whispering the last words that had come out of Sam's mouth while he twisted his fingers into pretzels.

"Samiyo," his mother said in warning.

"No Mama!  I'm tired of this!  You let him get away with murder and I'm just supposed to say, 'Oh, that's all right. Go ahead and f*** my life up...', ahhhh!  Mama!" He protested loudly as his mother brought the wooden spoon down on his thigh six times.

"Lan-gu-age!" She warned.

She then turned to Kanonu, got him to his feet and gave him three whacks.  Her youngest son opened his mouth to cry but she cut him off.  "Hush you!"  She told him sternly. "You had no bus-i-ness calling Bec-kett for any reason, es-pec-e-al-ly not this morning."

Before he could justify himself, she said, "What happens between Bec-kett and Sa-mi is between them, and you just keep yourself out of it.  Do I make myself understood?"

"Yes Mama. Yes, mama, yes." Kanonu replied quietly.  

She noted the lack of echo and tears and took a deep breath to calm herself down, "Did you call Bec-kett this morning?" she asked, her accent thickening as it often did when she was angry,

"Yes Mama." Kanonu replied.

"What time did you call him?"

"I don't remember," He said, looking at the clock above the television set as though it would tell him.  "Don't remember." he repeated wringing his fingers into what looked like painful knots.

Emira looked at the clock which now read 5:34 am and sighed.  Her shift at the hospital started at 8 and she hadn't even had her shower yet.

Five thirty-five.  "And you told him what Sa-mi told me?" She repeated, trying to remain calm.

"Yes Mama.  But I was only trying to help," the teen said, tears welling in his eyes again. "trying to help... to help."

Samiyo had been about to say something akin to 'I told you so' when he noticed his mother run a hand across her eyes. A sure sign that she was tired and worn out, and Sam felt the guilt hit like a fastball. 

Everyone had known that Kanonu, from the day he was born, was going to have difficulties.  Even though he was still very young, he'd been tentatively diagnosed with PDD which had been changed to Asperger's as he'd gotten older, his father Joseph, the only father Sam had ever known, had died four years later of complications due to pneumonia. Sam had been as much of a help to her as any ten-year-old could be, but that had still left a lot for his mother to deal with on her own.

"Mama... I'm sorry. It's not that big of a deal.  I... he just... surprised me is all.  I'm sorry," he said earnestly. "You go on and take your shower.  This is ended as far as I'm concerned, all right?" he said softly, taking the spoon away gently and wrapping his arms around his mother.

"I'm sorry Mama.  Sorry Mama.  Sorry." Kanonu echoed.  "I'll go get dressed." He said to the floor as he headed toward the stairs and up to the room he and his brother shared.

"Go on, Mama," Sam said quietly, giving his mother another gentle kiss and hug.

"I know that things have not always been easy or fair for you."  She replied quietly, looking into eyes that were almost the mirror of her own. "I know that your brother does get away with a lot more than you ever did, and that I have asked much of you ever since he was born.  And..."  Ever since Joseph died, she thought, but couldn't bear to say aloud.

"Mama, it's all right.  I'm all right.  I just forgot myself for a little while." Samiyo said, hugging her tightly.  "It's early, I was still half asleep when I heard him, I wasn't thinking clearly.  Go on now."  He smiled.

She smiled gratefully at him and went back upstairs to shower and get into her nursing uniform.

He hated it when he upset her, and he hated it when he lost patience with his little brother because those were the times that he felt he'd let Joseph, who had asked him to watch over them, down.  With a quick prayer of apology, he quickly made a pot of coffee, toasted bagels, set out coffee cups, poured a glass of milk for 'Nu and placed his meds beside the glass.

He thought about what he'd heard Kanonu saying when he'd come downstairs for a glass of milk and he blushed hotly.  It was then that the boy came down, neatly dressed, into the kitchen with his eyes averted.

"'Nu, I'm not mad anymore.  I know you meant well and I'm not mad, all right?"  He said gently, ducking a little to see his brother's face.

Kanonu looked up from under full lashes and focused his gaze somewhere around his brother's left ear, "OK?"  He asked.

"OK."  Sam repeated.  "Can I hug you?"  It was important to ask his little brother if touch were all right.  He'd learned long ago that his brother didn't always react well to being touched but would tolerate and sometimes even return a hug if asked.

Kanonu held out his arms and buried himself in his big brother's embrace.  That was how Emira found her two boys when she came down for a quick breakfast.

tbc