Mafia Guard Loves the Daughter

5.5

5.5

Ariadne’s Crown

Ehryl

I don’t remember much of the man that my mom loves. All I know is she still loves him and has never stopped loving him even when they were apart. I was young when I had my own thoughts about it.

For the longest time, the man who kissed my mother’s cheeks before leaving has finally left forever. But he didn’t stay out of our lives for long.

I watch as this middle school-aged boy stands in front of me. I wonder a lot about who his parents were and what he was doing here in our home, but the Dieth that I know is bigger than those doubts.

We’re just kids. He is two years older than me, but still a kid. Tall and lean, not at all lanky like a kid should. But he… is still a kid. He smiled in my direction when he pulled the fish out of the small pond on our property. It’s a bit lopsided but not asymmetrical enough that it isn’t cute. Every part of him is endearing.

The first time I ever saw him, and I just saw this brightness around him. I didn’t know it then, but he wasn’t what I thought he was. The large carp in his hands reminds of me the reason why we had this freshwater pond in the first place. Mom had forgotten she dropped a few fish in the pond, and before we knew it, we were eating fish every night in the summer of my 4th grade.

Dieth just came out of nowhere when he managed to catch a fish without anyone prompting him, it was only then she remembered she tried to raise edible carp in our pond.

“Looks like dinner,” I said.

He wiggles the fish in front of him, his smirk widening. “This is good enough for tonight. I don’t think I should catch a second one.”

I smiled. “Your accent is fading”

He makes a face. His boyish features crumpled in mock offense. “How dare you?”

I laughed. The heat of the sun prickling my exposed shoulders. It was getting hot, and I kept wearing tank tops this summer. Mom walks around in a simple shirt and shorts around the house, and we’re trying to save electricity. So everyone is dressed lightly this season.

I watch Dieth plunge himself half-naked on the chest-high pond. He easily waded through the traps he set in the middle of the pond and let the fish go. He comes up from the water with an empty fish trap and it lands with a thud on the ground. I never noticed a boy's body before. Never thought of it until I saw his lean body.

He isn’t lanky and thin like the boys in my school. He was always filled with muscles but lean. But I never saw him work out nor is he gone from long bouts of time to work out outside of the house. He did help Mom with the labor around the ranch.

“You’re staring,” He said with his back to me.

I blinked.; prying away my gaze, and for the first time I felt ashamed. “I-I’m going back and wait for Mom in the house”

I didn’t wait for his reply. I didn’t even give him another glance. My face was too hot, and the rush of air, as I jogged back to the house, helped a bit. I wouldn’t have noticed the letter on the floor if I wasn’t looking down at my feet.

The Truth

That was the only thing scribbled on the back of the envelope. And I was naïve, I didn’t know danger. Then I wasn’t after I read it.