Chapter Nineteen

I moved closer to him. The birth mark on his left cheek kept telling me that I had seen his face before, but I was unable to recall where exactly we had crossed paths.
"Camilla!" He exclaimed again.
"Who are you?" I finally asked, tired of trying to recall.
"Camilla, you really do not remember my face?" He nodded sadly. "Females forget so easily. What the hell have you been thinking that could make you forget your cousin brother, I'm Joe-joe. Your Aunt suzzy's son." I kept my gaze at him, still unable to understand any of the things he was saying. I had a cousin? It had better not be from my father's side, because that was a red flag.
"You still can't recall?" The boy who Identified as Joe held my two hands in his. "I'm the son of your mother's sister, Suzzy."
Suzzy! The name struck a chord. I have heard that name before, I just can't recall where. "We met about fifteen years ago, when your father brought you to meet your mother, can you remember now?" He seemed so excited.
Patches of pictures were beginning to flash back. "Yes, I recall now." If what he was saying was true, my mother was not dead. "What about your mother?" I asked him.
"I don't know. Yours?" He didn't seem like he was going to entertain any questions pertaining to his mom, so I didn't ask what he meant when he said he didn't know. After all, I didn't know where my mom was as well.
"I don't know either." We sat next to each other silently, we were both lost in our thoughts. After a prolonged silence, Joe finally asked me. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm Keddy's enslaved wife."
"Wait, w-h-a-t!" He gasped. "No way that's going to happen under my watch. I promise you, I'll speak with him, and get him to release you." Keddy didn't enslave me, I told my cousin the lie he would have wanted me to tell him. How do I explain to him that Keddy was just trying to keep me safe from my father? I chose not to.
"What about you, cos… what are you doing here?" His face turned red in shame.
"I'm a gangster." He avoided eye contact with me, his voice was weak and his tone unhappy.
"Okay!" I said indifferently.
Surprised? I wasn't. Most men in my life were gangsters, why would he feel ashamed of him? He had probably killed a lot of people, raped girls, robbed banks and done a lot of bad things. But I wasn't disappointed. I didn't care how he chose to live his life, all guys were the same.
"I'm starving." He finally said, breaking the silence that was beginning to build up again.
"I made pancakes." He didn't wait for me to finish, he skipped to the kitchen and settled on the dining chair to enjoy the meal.
"Thank you so much, Camila. I enjoyed the meal." Twenty minutes later, he emerged from the kitchen. I was itching to ask him about his operation, and if it was successful. But I would have to answer to who had told me he had an operation, so Instead… I kept my questions to myself.
He turned the television on, and stretched his legs out on the table in front of him.
"What's your favorite channel?" He turned to me.
"I'm not a huge fan of television, I'll watch anything you put on."
"You'll enjoy this, then." He switched to channel 448 of the decoder. He shifted closer to me, and crossed his arms around my neck. I felt slightly uncomfortable, but he was my cousin brother, right? He wasn't going to harm me.
Five minutes into the movie, I realized that it was a pornographic channel. From the first scene, to the last scene I saw nothing enlightening or exciting, just pornography. The lead characters were either making out, kissing, having a quickie or moaning. Everything about the channel was erotic.
"Cousin, are you enjoying this?" I couldn't stand it any longer, I had to ask. He smiled. "I am, are you?"
"Eeeew, no! I think I'll be in Keddy's bedroom." I stood up and made for the hallway.
"Wait!" He stood too, he plunged closer to me.
"What?" I noticed that he was so horny. It wasn't hard for me to figure it out, I had been subjected to sexual torture lots of times.
"Let's recreate the movie." He giggled in a creepy manner. "You will love the show." I could feel his fingers on my skin, I reciprocated with a slap.
"I'm your cousin sister, snap out of it. Dirty creatures." If my cousin brother had an eye for me, who wouldn't? I sighed loudly and locked the door behind me after I made it to Keddy's bedroom where it wasn't any safer.
The day was about to end with no drama except what had happened with Joe earlier in the day and I was really grateful for that. I was buried in the magazine I had tried reading last night, it was making more sense to me now. I wasn't letting one little episode ruin my perfect day. Although I did think he would have relevant information on the whereabouts of my mother, I wasn't willing to ask him anymore. He was disgusting to me.
I heard a knock on the door. I turned around to see Keddy and two other people whom I least expected.