Chapter 4: (v.2) The Storm is HERE!

Reads: 95

When he recovered from his fainting, minutes later, his whole solar plexus tightened up like a hanging rope and his hands became rigid, white and hard. His feet were rooted in the ground.

Having only the inside of the car as shelter, which would soon start to boil under the blazing noon summer sun, he understood that he couldn’t stay in this condition for too long.

He grasped his mobile phone and realized that his hands were trembling from the tension. Putting in a massive amount of effort, he managed to dial a number.

“Hey,” his father's voice sounded. “Are you coming for lunch? We are waiting for you!”

“Come and get me! I cannot drive!” he said with a trembling voice filled with rage.

“What happened?” his father sounded worried.

“I am on the highway for Aleksandroupoli, come and get me!” he repeated.

“But what has happened, my son?” asked his father with growing disquietude.

“I cannot take it anymore! YOU HAVE HUMILIATED ME, ALL OF YOU!” shouted Christos with rage and pain.

“You are right . . .” answered his father giving up, “you are right . . “

“I cannot take this anymore!” said Christos and hung up.

Then Christos’ mind went into suspension. He was far from being calm, but his anger had to wait.

A message then received by his phone said, “Me and your brother are coming to take you home. Stay where you are!”

He replied, “I am unharmed, but playtime is over!”

After a moment that seemed to last for an eternity, his father's car appeared in the distance. The car stopped and from inside, his father and his brother came out.

He sat inside the car and waited for them.

“You will suffocate in there,” his brother said, “get out!”

Christos, ignoring him, shouted, “What the hell is going on, dammit?” and he started bashing hard the car's steering wheel hard.

Seeing the steering wheel oscillate abnormally, Christos’ brother said, “Calm down! You will break it!”

Without feeling the least bit calm, Christos got out of the car and went on a rampage, shouting and waving his hands as if being possessed by evil spirits. “HELL! HELL!!” he cursed, picking up big rocks and throwing them to the ground with force.

Father and son, not knowing how to deal with this situation, started shaking with fear.

Christos, realizing their fear, stood still.

On the other side of the road grew a crop field with huge boulders scattered around.

“Let’s take him there to calm down!” said his father to Michalis.

They walked to the opposite field and Christos walked with them, his feet seeming like tree trunks, being ripped from the ground and rerouted as he walked.

“What am I gonna do with you?” cried Christos. “Is this a life? To live like this so many years? I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

They didn’t say anything, only sat and listened.

“Only studying-studying-studying! NO MORE! NO MORE!”

Then he said: “I should have left the house when I was sixteen to work in a bar and escape from you! I shouldn’t have stayed with this family!”

As if a bag full of cement was placed on his back, his fathers’ expression became heavier.

“Calm down Christos!” Michalis said, “things are not as you describe them to be!”

With rage reaching its maximum, Christos went berserk, “CURSE YOU! CURSE YOU ALL!” He went near a bush crop and started kicking it.

“Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!” he cursed and the plants started to suffer heavy casualties, members being thrown in the air from rapid hand and kick hacking. “Why have I done this? WHY?”

Not being able to watch anymore, his father stood up and said, “I must leave!” He took the car and left.

“He is doing this to make me feel guilty!” Christos said and started crying.

“No, Christos,” said Michalis who remained with him. “He simply felt emotionally overloaded.”

Then Christos’ rage started subsiding, leaving room for exhaustion to take place.

His brother realized this and he suggested that they should return home.

On the way home, Christos said again, “I cannot take this life anymore!”

“But you did something good, Christos,” Michalis replied, “Only considering the fact that you expressed this much anger, doesn’t it make you feel more alive?”

“Yes, it does,” Christos replied. It was then that he felt the physical exhaustion from this anger outburst. Long was since he felt so much alive. Maybe he never had.

They returned home and the stillness there appeared suspicious. “I am going to take a nap,” said Michalis.

Feeling an insatiable hunger, Christos went to the kitchen to eat lunch. There, on the kitchen table, his mother sat thoughtful and silent.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” he replied.

Christos wanted to repeat everything he said to his father to her, but at that moment, he felt completely drained.

He took a plate and served himself.

“What’s going on with you Christos?” his mother broke the silence.

“What is going on with me?” he replied with a flaccid voice.

“You are driving us mad!” she said. “With all the things that you said!”

“And what did I say?”

“You know!”

“Leave me be, I am not in the mood right now!”

She ignored him and continued:

“Haven’t you both realized that I care about you?”

“No,” he replied bluntly.

“Even if I was asked to rip my heart out of my chest, I would do it for you!” said Iulia, and the moment she completed her sentence she started weeping.

Without warning and without mercy, Mr. Fear made his appearance again, knocking Christos out. He didn’t expect such a reaction from his mother, as she constantly behaved harsh and unsympathetically.

“I ruined everything!” he thought. “I made a big mistake!” “Don’t cry mommy!” he said. “It is all my fault!”

He stood up, walked to the kitchen's window and looked out.

Clouds gathered from the overwhelming summer moisture making the horizon obscure.

“I will be fine!” he said eventually, but truth is that he didn’t feel sure about this at all.

Confused, afraid and exhausted, he wondered what had happened. Why did he make that outburst? Him? The good boy? What kind of behavior was that? Making his father and mother sad? shameful!

He went to his room to rest a bit, but in his sleep no dreams came nor did he feel refreshed when he woke up.

He only saw a missed call from the Teacher and went out to the balcony to call him back.

“Hello?” the Teacher said.

“It is Christos,” he said. “How are you?”

“I’m fine,” replied the Teacher laughing. “And how are you?”

“Ehh, we had a situation here you know. . .“ Christos said.

“I know that,” the Teacher said. “It was pure anger! A volcano eruption!”

Christos said nothing. He didn’t know what to say.

“Let me ask you,” the Teacher said. “Would you like to drop by my house? It would help you relax!”

Christos wanted to go, but felt too exhausted for more incidents like this. He had the impression that if he went to the Teacher, he would become mad again, something he didn’t want to for the time being. He feared to visit him, as he would perhaps act again in that weird manner.

“What foolish things was I thinking before when I did what I did?” he wondered spontaneously. “On the other hand of course, I could leave a door open for the possibilities.”

“Should I come better tomorrow?” he asked. “I am too much drained out after this event!”

“Could it be that he is frightened maybe?” the Teacher thought and then asked, “You are sure about this Christos, right? I hope you haven’t changed your mind for coming here?”

“No, I haven’t,” he replied. “It is just that it was all too much for one day.”

“Okay then, Christos,” said the Teacher. “Appointment tomorrow at 10 a.m. then?”

“Okay!”

The phone hung up.

Later in the evening, Christos wondered if he did well for turning down the invitation. Maybe meeting the Teacher would help him.

Christos felt his mind become divided. Did he do the right thing by becoming angry and saying what he said, or not? His outrage was completely unexpected, something he had never repeated in the past!

“What is wrong with me?” he wondered and started to become afraid. “Have I lost my mind?”

By remembering the days that preceded his emotional detonation, before he met the Teacher, Christos realized that he also experienced something similar then. He was convinced then that his mind would split apart in two pieces. On the one side arose the new self, which made him feel calmness and joy, and on the other side his old self resided, the good and obedient child which studied all the time and did nothing else.

Like then, so now, that division existed. And he didn’t know how to make it go away.

“Oh no, I have started to become crazy!” he thought and panicked.

And panic in its turn brought even more fear for forgotten issues, what did his father think about him now? Was he sad, angry or did he really not care at all?

Submitted: February 23, 2024

Literary Fiction romance therapy psychology counselling personal-development