A corner of Jombo's mouth quirked up. It took him a while to utter a word. "Okay…"
"Mr. Jombo…" Venus said in between sobs, "I won't make you piggyback me anymore, Mr. Jombo. Please get well soon. I want to buy hot cross bunnies for you to eat."
"Don't cry, Venus, " Josh said, but even he himself could not stop his tears from rolling down his cheeks. "Sorry, Mr. Jombo, I shouldn't have forced you to play with us. You must be really tired."
"What's wrong with you two?" As the older brother, Randy raised his voice and expressed his dismay. "I thought we agreed not to cry?"
"No, I didn't cry." Josh took in a deep breath and wiped tears off his face with his tiny hands.Venus pouted, but she also tried resisting the urge to cry.
Thompson came up to the children and consoled them. "All right, all right. Let's not disturb Mr. Jombo anymore, shall we? Let's go out."
"Okay." They nodded.
"Say goodbye to Mr. Jombo, " Thompson reminded.
"Bye, Mr. Jombo. When we come to visit you the next time, I'll bring hot cross bunnies for you, okay?" Venus said.
"Get well soon, Mr. Jombo. Let's play soccer together soon, " Josh added.
"See you soon, Mr. Jombo…"
Thompson brought the children out and said, "Wait for me at the lounge, okay? I'll bring you home soon."
"Okay, Mr. Thompson." All three of them nodded.
At the lounge, the medical staff took good care of the children. They even prepared snacks and fruit juice for them.
Thompson walked to the office as he wanted to know more about Jombo's condition. All of a sudden, Zayn opened the door and left in a hurry. He almost knocked Thompson down.
Thompson shouted in pain while clenching his chest. "Mr. Zayn, I'm old, so please be more kind to me…"
Zayn did not even look at Thompson. He kept pressing the button outside the elevator as if he was in a hurry to go somewhere.
"Where are you going?" Thompson caught up with him and asked, "I need to discuss with you…"
"Do not allow any visitors to come in without my permission. You hear me?" Zayn instructed and went into the elevator.
He then stepped forward, prevented the elevator's door from closing, and asked, "Where are the kids?"
"They're in the lounge. I'll be sending them home soon…"
"No." Zayn interrupted and instructed, "They'll stay with you."
Thompson was dumbfounded. "But why? What happened?"
Zayn did not answer him. He took a few steps back, allowing the elevator's door to close.
A line formed between Thompson's brows as he could feel something had must have happened. At this point, he could only do what Zayn told him to.
"Mr. Thompson, the car's ready. Shall we send them back to Happy Avenue?"
"No, " Thompson said, "We'll take them back to our place. Get people to prepare the daily essentials for the kids."
"All right."
Thompson walked to the lounge and noticed how upset Randy, Josh, and Venus were. They sat quietly on the couch and did not touch the snacks and fruit juice at all.
"Can we go home now, Mr. Thompson?" Randy asked when he saw Thompson coming in.
"There's something I need to discuss with all of you." Thompson squatted down and continued, "I need you to stay at Mr. Jombo's house, okay? I'm sure Mr. Jombo will be glad to see all of you when he returns home."
Josh and Venus exchanged glances and then looked at Randy, who was the ultimate decision maker of them all.
"I need to ask Mommy first, " Randy said, "We need to get her approval."
"All right." Thompson gently tapped on Randy's shoulder, "Let's go outside and call your Mommy, okay?"
"Okay."
Share
