Page 299 of The Bonus

I drag my attention back to my schoolwork, another word for catastrophe…umm….

From the corner of my eye I see my mother pick up her phone and call my father, I pretend not to listen as I stare at my work.

“Hello,” she says. “Where are you?” She listens for a beat. “Again?” She listens again. “You couldn’t call me to let me know?”

I hear the hurt in her voice and my stomach twists.

“I’m here with your children waiting for you to come home, where else would I be?” she whispers angrily.

He says something as she listens intently. “Yes I know you have a lot of pressure on you,” she says as her voice softens. “I know it’s not your fault. I just miss you, that’s all. We need you at home with us, can’t you work from your office here at night?”

I can hear his voice as he talks to her but I can’t hear what he’s saying.

“Yeah.” She sighs. “Okay.” She listens again. “I’ll be asleep by then. I guess it’s good night. I love you.” She hangs up with a deep exhale and looks over at me. “I’m going to get going to bed, Gabriel.” She walks over to stand behind me and puts her hands onto my shoulders as she looks down at my work. “You should call it a night too, darling.”

“Okay, just going to finish this essay first. I won’t be long, I promise.”

She kisses my forehead and rubs her hand through my hair, “You’re such a hardworking boy. Do you know how much I love you?”

I smile. “Good night, Mom, I love you too.”

She disappears up the stairs as I stare after her. I drag my eyes back to my essay but my mind wanders to my father and to what the hell is going on with him lately, why does he work back at the office all the time now?

He’s the CEO, he gets to decide where he works from…and yet he would rather be at the office. What the hell is so good about the office anyway?

Annoyed, I turn my attention back to my essay.

I get a vision of him sitting at his desk in the deserted office building, working so hard to support our family, and the pressure he must feel, and guilt fills me.

I need to get the best marks I can at school, I pick up my pen and get back to work.

I want to make him proud.

Gabriel - Aged 17.

Bang.

I wake with a start to hear muffled voices arguing.

My bedroom is dark and I roll over and pick up my phone, 2.20 a.m.

Who’s arguing at this time of the morning? I get up and go to the bathroom and I can hear my mother’s raised voice.

What’s going on?

I open my bedroom door and walk down the hallway and around the corner to my parents’ wing. Their bedroom door is closed and the light is peeking out from under it but I can hear raised voices through it.

What are they arguing about?

Creeping closer, I stand beside the door in the darkness so I can listen.

“You tell me, you tell me right now why your work shirt smells like perfume?” my mother shrieks.

“I have no idea,” my father replies. “Obviously when I hugged Marie today for her birthday she was wearing perfume.”

“You’re lying!” she screams.

“I’m too tired for your fucking dramatics tonight,” my father growls.

---