I never believed the News, it never sounded like the truth to me, maybe they just wanted me there, they wanted me to come for a certain reason that wasn't what the just said, maybe Uncle Dale just wanted to play with my mental health to see my reaction, he just wanted to use himself as a bait just to know how I will act, this is just a joke, they're just playing me to see how much I love my father. Right now it was no longer about David, none of his thing concerns me right now, just like Uncle Dale said, it's a decision I made, I have to take the responsibility of it.
David was sitting inside the car with me, at this point, he never cared about what his mother said when he came after me, I ran down the stairs so quick, not knowing that the elevator has been made available, I never wanted to waste a single minute and it turns out David came down before me, we went to my car together, I can't just ask him to stay out of my car, Uncle Dale is his Father too, however I am taking this News, that's the exact way he's feeling about it too.
We got there as I rushed out of the car, bringing my phone out as I tried the number that last called me. “( Hello.... You're speaking to the warden, how may I help you?....)”, I told him that it was me, I explained myself to him as Uncle Dale's guardian before he understood who was on the line.
He made us come to the office where we sat down and waited to verify whether that information was really the truth or not, David was already acting like a crybaby, reacting to an information that there's no evidence of.
“ This is the letter left for you by Mr Dale.... It says that we should help to make this letter get to Mr Jones Williams, I'm really sorry for your loss, Mr Dale has really been a good inmate here....”, the warden said. There was no sign of laughter on his expression, he was just rock solid looking into my eyes as he offered the letter to me.
I accepted the letter, eyes fixed on him to see whether there would be any form of different reaction, but the man before us wasn't joking, more like he was used to this kind of scenario, losing an inmate.
“ I can go show you his body, you only have 48 hours to take him from here or we would take the matter into our hands, thank you for your cooperation.....”. He finished his statement, stood up from his seating position and left us there in the office, we followed suit immediately, I am beginning to believe this, the more closer we got to this the more painful it becomes, David was already in tears, following behind me as I continued to put on that strong face, waiting to see everything with my eyes.
“ I Believe he has his reasons for asking for you instead of the boy behind you.... I can remember the boys face behind you when the deceased case was going on in the law court, he's nothing like I remembered, then I thought the deceased was just his senior brother or something, not knowing he was his father....”. The Warden was speaking as if he really wasn't hurt by this, I won't blame him though, he has nothing to do with our father in the outside world, they probably didn't even knew themselves, why should I then expect him to be in tragedy as us?.
Opening the white cloak used in covering the dead body, it was him, it was his face, it was uncle Dale, he was lying lifeless before me right now and I can't do anything about it, my legs began shaking, finding it hard to carry the weight of my body as I fell to the floor, is this real?, How is this happening?, Was this all a joke or something?, What if we were mistaken and he's still alive somehow?, “ Dad, Dad!.... Uncle Dale!, Uncle Dale please wake up Uncle Dale!, Tell me this was all a joke, you're just trying to prank us, Open your eyes and tell us it's not real, that you're just kidding.... Please uncle Dale, please!!!.....”, I begged his lifeless body for life, but nothing was happening, I can't believe this, I can't believe this is happening, it's all a lie, some part in my heart knew all this was nothing but lies.
“ I will give you five minutes to morn the deceased, get prepared to move him tomorrow or we will take the matters into our hands, that's all ”, the warden left the room.
David was there pushing Uncle Dale's body to wake up, in shock that this was really happening, I never believed it was real until I saw it clearly with my eyes, Uncle Dale is dead and we can't revive him in any possible way. I was just sitting down on the floor, my back resting on the wall as I was just there watching David in agony and pain, I never knew he really did love his father this way, I thought that version of him was long gone and forgotten, but this young man before me is really in grief, grieving for the loss of his father, our father.
Did he saw this coming?, He surely knew about this, he probably knew that he was running out of time, yet he acted strong, he kept such information away from me and now the last moment I had with him was just when he left me with a brief advice and teaching, was I really worth being his son?, How come a son never knew what his father was going through?, I'm just a disgrace, a total wasted bag of disgrace, watching obliviously while I lost my closest father, Uncle and friend.