Page 3 of Waiting Game

Tomorrow, the boys would graduate from high school.

Me, I still had a year to go.

I was scared, not for me but for them.

I knew that the moment that they were done with school, they would be immediately pushed into the family business. Antoni had been training to take over for Dad for as long as I could remember. Ren’s father was Dad’s right hand man, and I knew that Ren would eventually become the same for Antoni.

Another generation, another pair of men to rule all that was wrong in Melbourne.

Another pair of men to carry on a cruel and evil legacy.

Another pair of lives lost to the dark side.

“What are you going to do? When you finish?”

“Val,” he sighed, turning onto his back and raking his hands through his hair again.

“What?” I snapped.

“I don’t have a choice, okay? You know that. Dad is going to prison. I don’t give a shit what his lawyers say, I already know what’s going to happen. Someone has to take over,” he said, taking the cigarette from my fingers.

“But it doesn’t have to be you,” I pleaded, my eyes searching his face as he looked towards the sky.

He turned his head to meet my eyes, giving me a sad look.

“We could still run, you know,” I said.

He took a draw from the smoke and his expression softened, “to Perth?”

I nodded, “like we’ve always talked about.”

Ren exhaled, the sadness returning to his face as he battled internally.

I knew that I was asking a lot of him, and I knew that he didn’t want to let Antoni down either. But I couldn’t stand to watch him, or my brother, turn out like our fathers.

Both of them were the kindest, sweetest, most amazing men that I knew. It wouldn’t be long before the life changed them into monsters. It was a cruel fate, a destiny that none of us chose.

And I would have to sit back and watch it happen.

“You need to finish school, Val,” he said, passing the cigarette back to me.

“No I don’t,” I sat up, putting my legs over his.

“Yes,” he urged, “yes you do. You have so much ahead of you.”

I shook my head, looking down at our legs that were tangled together.

“You’re better than us, Val. And I refuse to be the reason that you hold yourself back,” he said.

“Then just wait for me,” I begged, “it’s only a year. Then we’ll both leave. Together.”

I could feel the tears tugging at my eyes, threatening to add another layer of pathetic to my pleading. It’s not like we hadn’t already had this conversation ten times. At the beginning, they were more optimistic. But as the day drew closer, Ren became less hopeful and more defeated.

“Once I’m in, I’ll be bound for life. You know that,” he sighed, sitting up and pulling his legs away from mine and drawing them in towards himself.

I looked up at the sky as he watched me. The beats of silence filled the space between the words I wanted to say and the words that I knew had to be said.

“So that’s it then?” I threw my hands in the air, “We give up? It’s over?”

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