Chapter 4:
Cleansing A Sinful Heart-Season 1
After the cameras were viewed at the bus security office inside the waiting room, Zac was placed in custody and was interrogated. Zac's mother was present there, and the bus security guards released Zac from his custody. His mother drove him home.
She sat in the front left seat, glaring at Zac and the road back and forth at the same time. Zac sat in the front right seat, looking out from the window. Zac frowned in disappointment with his hand under his chin.
-Wow! Jus' wow! I can't believe my special day was ruined by Hadasa and that little brat! They'll pay for what they've done to me! Because thanks to them, not only am I now in trouble but I'm also gonna be grounded too while I'm at it. I'll get them for this soon enough, dammit. Just you wait, you two. I swear to Elohim, mark my words. They'll see who's gonna have a bad day now.
Zac's mother sighed out of anger while she angrily turned to Zac and the road back and forth a couple times. "For once, I cannot believe you've done something so sinful and illegal, stealing this kid's toy just to make a profit out of it! I'm very, very disappointed in you, Zaccai! Deeply disappointed! I raised you better than that! You've been a good boy most of the time, and now you've done something this shit?!
"Starting today, you're grounded for twenty-one days, mister! No phone except for certain circumstances, no bus rides, no internet and no video games."
Widening his eyes, Zac opened his mouth and quickly turned to his mother. "N-N-No video games?!"
"That's right, Zaccai," Zac's mother answered, "No video games."
"No fair, mom!" Zac protested, "Can you not ban me from video games?! They're part of my life and identity, you know."
"No! Absolutely not!" Zac's mother roared. "This is your punishment afterall. Besides, I bet you've bought a new video game today like you always do, did you?"
"Y-Yeah, I did," Zac replied without looking his mother in the eye.
"It's 'Yes, Ma'am' to you." Zac's mother raised her eyebrow at Zac.
Zac stood silent for a moment.
Zac's mother glared at Zac. "Well? I'm waiting, you know."
"Yes, ma'am…"
"Much better," Zac's mother said out of relief with a little grin on her face. "Now hand over your game and phone to me, young man!"
As soon as Zac's mother placed her right hand out in front of Zac, moving her fingers back a couple times except her thumb, Zac pulled his dumbphone out of his pocket and his video game from his brown bag. After he put them onto his mother's palm hand, he roared back at her, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever, Ma!"
"Oh? So now you're catching an attitude with me?!" Zac's mother yelled, "Keep it up, and I'll ground you for forty days instead! Do you understand me?!"
So Zac decided to cool off his attitude with his mother. "Yes…"
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Now that's good. That's exactly what I want to hear from you, son," his mother exclaimed. "Oh, and one more thing…"
"What?"
"Starting tomorrow morning, as part of your punishment, you'll be doing some sort of community service-some sort of charity work, if you know what I mean."
Zac's eyes widened again with his mouth opened, turning to his mother's attention. "W-W-What?! But mom-!"
"No, no, no, no buts, mister," his mother shook her head sideways. "You're going to do it, and that's final. You got that?"
"Yes, ma'am," Zac responded, turning back to the window with his angry face. His mouth continuously opened and his eyes widened even more. His eyes started twitching a little sideways.
-Holy shit! This punishment is worse than I thought! Not only are my video games taken away from me, but I also will be doing some…community service. Oh, Lord, help me…
The window reflected his face like a mirror, while he looked out the window, seeing people of all sorts of life walk past and chat with each other. All types of vehicles drove past one another and parked near certain spots of the sidewalk.
****
After Zac lost his privileges and tomorrow morning came, he sat in the back car seat behind his mother. His father sat at the front left car seat, driving the car.
Once Zac finished looking out the window, Zac turned to his father. "Uh, dad. Why are you driving us to community service today? Wouldn't we just walk there instead?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked, son," his father responded, "Because we only travel faster by car than our legs and feet. Plus, it's also part of your punishment."
"Yep, and besides…" Zac's mother added, "Even if you know where it's at, you would have to regain our trust while you're being grounded. We can't just have you running around all over the city while you're still under punishment, can we now?"
"Yeah…I guess so…" Zac responded with his annoyed face.
-Oh, jus' great! Jus' great! I thought this punishment jus' can't get any worse! And it already freakin' has! Ugh!
"Good, so you just sit back tight and keep yourself occupied during our travel. We're almost there," his father said as he continuously drove Zac to community service.
After a few minutes have passed, Zac's father excitedly grinned when he looked out to his left. "Op, and we're here!"
Parking near a small, white building that stared at Zac and his parents, Zac examined it from the window on the left. Then Zac and his parents exited the car, seeing a woman walking outside the building and greeted them with a smile. Her dark black, long hair was pushed back by the wind a little while she walked. The sun shone on her white skin, and her hazel eyes gazed at Zac and his parents. Once she greeted and shook his parents' hands, she did the same with him.
"And lookie here. You must be Zaccai, the one who stole the boy's toy and tried to sell it yesterday, yes?" The woman said when she and Zac shook their hands, "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Mrs. Ananias…"
"Mrs. Ananias?" Zac asked.
"Or you can call me Mrs. 'A' for short if you prefer to call me that. I'm sorry my surname's a bit unusual to you."
"Oh, not at all, ma'am. Mrs. A it is then."
"Good, I'm glad you agreed to that."
-This woman seems like a nice lady already.
"However…"
Mrs. A cuckold her eyebrow at Zac. "What?"
Zac moved his eyes to the left in his annoyed face. "Can you please stop calling me Zaccai? I prefer to be called Zac."
"What?! Zaccai!" Zac's mother cried. "There's nothing wrong with being called Zaccai, you know."
Looking down below with his angry look on his face, Zac twitched his body, clenched his fists tightly, opened his mouth and widened his eyes.
-This damn woman jus' wouldn't stop with this kind of bullshit, does she now?! She's jus' so freakin' annoyin', that's for damn sure!
"Oh-ho-ho-ho! It's quite alright, Mrs. Miyauchi," Mrs. A said, raising her hands up and pushed her palm hands forward a little a couple times. "If your son prefers to be called Zac, that's totally fine by me."
After hearing what Mrs. A just said, Zac lifted his head up out of relief and sighed.
-Looks like someone over here finally gets it unlike my own mother. I wish I was part of Mrs. A's family over the Miyauchi family tree instead.
Mrs. A turned her attention back to Zac, crossing her arms with her eyes closed and a smile. "So, Zac. Are you ready to do some work around here today?"
-Op, here comes the punishment thing…ugh…
"Yeah…I guess so…" Zac answered, frowning with his eyes turned to the left.
"You really don't want to do some charity work, do you?"
"Nope, I prefer not."
"Well, that's too bad, Zaccai!" Zac's father said, pulling Zac's dumbphone out of his pocket, handing it over to his son. "This is your punishment, son. If you hadn't done what you did yesterday, none of this would've happened, would it now?"
After being annoyed with his father calling him Zaccai, Zac grabbed his dumbphone from his father's hand. "Yea…I guess so, dad."
"It's 'Yes, sir' to you."
"Yes, sir."
"Now that's a good boy," Zac's father said.
"Well, we better get going," Zac's mother said.
After she and her husband said and waved their good-byes to Mrs. A, they hugged Zac and kissed him on each cheek.
"Good-bye, Zaccai," Zac's mother said, waving at Zac. "I love you."
Zac and Mrs. A waved back at his parents.
"Good-bye, mom. I love you too. Good-bye, dad. I love you as well," Zac said.
Zac's father waved at Zac. "Good-bye, Zaccai. I love you too. Have a good day and stay out of trouble, you hear me?"
"Yes, sir. I will," Zac said.
"Because if you do…" Zac's mother said as she and her husband headed for the car. "You'll be grounded for forty days, you got that, son?"
"Yes, ma'am," Zac said.
"Good. We'll call to check on you," Zac's mother said, "We'll also come back to pick you up before your community service ends, okay?"
"Okay, mom," Zac said.
Once his parents were gone, Zac and Mrs. A turned their attention towards one another.
"Okay, Zac. Come with me," Mrs. A said, walking past Zac. "Since you're new here, I'll take you on a tour as well as lead you to the place where you'll be working at."
"Okay," Zac obeyed as he followed Mrs. A's lead.
-Okay, honestly screw this punishment, because I hate gettin' up this early in the morning. But at least Mrs. A's a pretty nice lady. This place might not be that bad, so how worse could it be?
Zac and Mrs. A entered the building and started a tour for a while.
****
Once the tour was completed, Zac and Mrs. A walked towards the door. They smiled as if they were relaxing or something. Zac was pretty happy with his tour.
-Now the tour was actually pretty fun and I had a great time with it, honestly. I liked to get to know the rooms of this building once in a while. This place a lot prettier and interesting on the inside than on the outside.
"And here we are, Zac," Mrs. A said, placing her hand on the door knob. "This is where you'll be doing your community service at."
Zac immediately turned his grin upside down, gazing at the door.
-Oh, great. Here comes my punishment. Ugh. Here goes nothin', I guess.
Once Mrs. A opened the door, she and Zac entered the room. Zac's eyes were widened and twitched a little sideways. His mouth was opened to display his straight, white teeth. His heart began to pound hard and sweat came pouring down all over his face a little.
-Ugh! What the hell?! It can't be-! It jus' can't-!
There he saw Hadasa and six other people-three boys and three girls-matched each pair of shoes on the floor and placed them into that gigantic, brown box until it was full, tying the shoelaces together. Then they stopped what they were doing and turned to Zac and Mrs. A. Zac stood there in panic mode when Hadasa and others stared at him.
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