To What Purpose?

Sometimes I think that it would be better to trust a stranger than the ones who are as close as our family members. Yet that doesn't really make sense because those who get close to us were once strangers. While I was away, something happened that has me wondering. I knew there was a reason unknown to me for not tolerating him but there was nothing I could do about it. Even if I tried to make Sister see, the decisions are hers only. In time, the truth is no longer buried beneath layers of lies and deception. I know I was waiting hopelessly for the news she finally told me during the week, and all I can say is that I am sorry it had to be that way. What was he thinking? I cannot even begin to imagine! He considered himself part of my family so why would he do what he did? Really, what would spying on us gain him?

A week ago, probably around this same time, Dad went behind the house to lock up the storage room. I suppose he wasn't even there yet when he heard footsteps in the dark. Someone was running away! The person ran into the neighbors' yard but not before crashing into a pole my dad placed behind the matchbox of a house for my cat to climb in the ceiling. The neighbor heard his dogs barking and came out to see what the hassle was about. It was he who recognized the person fleeing. He said the person also crashed into something in their yard.

The runner knew that if he went en route to his home, the school, or in the center of the village he would be recognized from far so he opted to go up the hill, away from the light, into the hibiscus bushes planted by the uphill neighbors. It was a good choice but in his haste to get away, and also because of being unfamiliar with the state of the neighbors yard, he ran into squishy mud and BINGO! His tennis got stuck and he didn't have the time or the chance to try to get it out. The neighbor got it out and recognized who's it was but Dad didn't. I wasn't surprised at that part since he never really notices what a person wears. [There was a time when he didn't even recognize his own daughter! How bad can it get? Oh, and birth dates and ages.]

The following morning, Dad walked around the yard and he saw where Sister's X walked. Mom says she saw a light by the 'sambo' trees, probably from his phone, and I am guessing that was at the same time he sent my other Sister weird text messages. We still don't understand what he meant. Anyway, from there he must have used the pigpen as cover and made his way through the front yard no one really walks through. The footprints led to the corner of the kitchen, where he could peep through the cracks for as long as he wanted, unnoticed.

What all that was about? Who am I to say? All I know for sure is that it bothers me and I keep thinking that that wasn't the first time he was spying on my family. He tries anything else, I'll be right here waiting. Sister says he knows I don't like him and I always catch him looking [sort of starting] at me. He probably tries to figure out what lies beneath a cool, uninterested surface.