Steve Markous has been hounding me about this trip for the weekend. When he calls me, this business plan is the only thing he speaks about, so much so, that I hate answering my phone when his number pops up on the screen. I was getting so sick and tired of this, “why do you allow yourself to get into these predicaments?” I cursed myself out! I picked up my phone! Like all the other calls … I would confirm everything that was spoken last time we spoke and then I would ask him a new question that my brother has forced me to do. I wished my brother would think of all of these questions all at once. Instead of one question and three days later a new one. I swear he was testing my patience level. No different than when we were kids. Markous would push me to the limit, I would swing … then my father would give me a beating telling me I needed to know my place. By the time I was in my teens, it was avoidance or do as he said. That way I would miss the punches and kicks that I would receive from both my father and brother. “Why do I allow this?” I screamed as I dialled Pierre's number for what I hoped to be the last time. I heard Pierre's voice, "Hello!" I focused my tone to be uplifting as I glared at the gun on the table. "Pierre, this is Steve ..." With a huff, "What is up man?" I could almost hear his internal thoughts saying, ‘What the fuck now?’ I closed my eyes knowing that this must be annoying for him, it sure was for me. "I am calling because my brother asked me for you to once again send the list of things that are needed for this trip ... we have one more party member that is coming with us!" At least this time it was not for some retard thing, there was a good enough purpose for this call. “I am sorry man! This consistent hounding you has to be annoying … I know it is for me!” I was being honest with the man, “I tried to look for the list myself to avoid this call … unfortunately I lost the print off and I deleted the original text message!” I explained myself to Pierre. Pierre’s tone of voice changed from annoyance to understanding, "Sure thing! Do you want me to send it to you or the new party member?" Pierre asked me. “Eh! Pierre … Do you need any help?” I could hear a female voice in the background. “One minute Merna … I am on the phone!” I could tell that Pierre had moved the phone away from his face as he yelled at Merna. “Sorry about that Steve!” I chuckled briefly, realizing Pierre was busy and I was interrupting him, "If you have no issues with sending it to Camile, that would be great! I will text you her business email address and she can go over it herself."Pierre started to chuckle, "I will send it to her sometime today. I am still unpacking so it might take me a while to find my laptop. However, once I find it ... I will send the list to ... it was Camile right?" I nodded my head even though I knew he would not see me, "Yes that is correct!" "Okay man, send me the information!" Pierre said as if he wanted to end the conversation and get back to what he was doing. "Sounds good! I will see you Friday then!" I wanted to get off the phone myself. "Yeap!" With that, Pierre disconnected the conversation. I typed out the information that needed to be sent to Pierre and placed my phone down near the gun. Picking up the single bullet I allowed my mind to think about the easy way out. Placing it down again, I thought about poor Camile. Of all the people to go with us, Camile was not at the top of the list I would have thought to send with us. Then again she was not much different than myself … a doormat for our family to walk on! Now I had no choice but to go, someone had to protect her from my brother. What other alternative plans did my brother have, they were not going to be good. I could take my brother's verbal and physical abuse … poor Camile would not! Markous has always been able to put her into tears. He will zone in on her and she will be helpless. I strolled over to the fridge grabbing a beer I flopped in my chair. Gulping the liquid I thought about the name I heard Pierre say, Merna! “Why did that name sound familiar?” I spoke out loud to myself as I leaned my head back into the sofa chair. As I was holding my drink, with my eyes closed, the name Merna clicked in my mind. When I first called and made arrangements with Pierre for this contract … a female named Merna had warned me not to go on this trip. Merna was Pierre’s friend! Why would a solid man be associated with a fraud? Drinking the last of my beer, I thought a bit about what Merna said. When I told my brother about the warning we both had a good laugh. It was not often that Markous and I would see eye to eye. This is one area that we could agree on. When we lost our nana, Mom spent a lot of money on psychics trying to reach her mother. The first time she did this we all looked the other way. My mother was grieving the loss of her mother and just wanted some kind of comfort. The more times my mother would go to this so called card reader, the more I thought that she was extorting money out of my mother. I was pissed when I found out how many times my mother had gone to this psychic. In one month my mother had repeatedly gone five times, each time wasting over a hundred dollars. The psychic had taken more than enough money from my mother. And what did my mother get in return, more tears and heartache. As far as I was concerned they all were frauds … trying to get as much money out of hard working people. I deeply inhaled as I grabbed another beer! Even though my logical side of the brain was screaming at me to not listen to a word Merna had spoken … my gut was telling me that this whole thing was a big mistake!