“I’m sorry for your loss.” I look over my shoulder to see who it talking to me. It’s a tall man with short black hair, a relative of some sort, but I can’t remeber who he is. “Mm.” I don’t know what to say, how are you supposed to respond? Should I say “thank you”, I’m not thankful. I look back at the cascet at my diseased mother, her cold hands look dry and and her eyelids heavy.

The man behind me speaks again, “How do you expect to take care of tour four younger siblings now that both of your parents are dead?” Really, you want to mention that, now, of all times? “I don’t know, I’m sure I’ll figure something out,” is my simple reply. “You can’t live life carried by an ‘I’ll figure it out’. Life isn’t that simple, and there are people in your life counting on you.” What is this guys deal? “I know, it’s just hard to think straght right now.”

“Well you better get that brain working fast, or your siblings will be living in a ditch.” He finishes off that last chuckle by adding in a small chuckle. “Real funny. I’ll have to get a second job, I suppose, and I’ll get my brother Micheal to help watch the others while I’m working.” Hopefully that’s a sufficiant answer for “Mr. Nosy”.

“Well, are you going to learn to cook, or do you plan to starve your siblings? And how will you educate them? Obviously you won’t be there to homeschool them, and you can’t ely on Micheal for everything, now can you? Well, how do you suppose you’ll do it all?” This guy really doesn’t know when to stop, does he? I want to tell him to get away from me, but I keep my composure. “I don’t know yet.”

“Well, you should really figure it out! Do you just want your siblings to have an aweful childhood? Do you just not care about them? Dear me, you have to have some kind of plan!” Alright that’s it. It felt like a small explosion in my heart. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it, I just thought everything was going to so itself out. It’s crazy how the loss of one person can have such an extreme effect.

Tears welled up in my eyes and I let my anger out then and there. “I don’t know what I’m going to do! Ok?! I just lost my mother, will you leave me alone?! Not everything is that easy to figure out, she only passed two days ago, just let me be!” All eyes were on me now, and the room went silent. I knew I shouldn’t let my anger out, but it felt like he was asking for it.

“Ah, children, so ignorant,” was his simple response. I looked back at my dead mother and everyone slowly went back to what they were doing. The man had bought I new level of pain into my heart, I couldn’t take care of them all and I knew it, I didn’t know what I would do, all I knew is that I would have to do something.