Pressure at Home

Kelly hated family dinners. Not because of the food.

His mother cooked like someone trying to heal people through seasoning alone. She use a lot of seasoning while cooking.The aroma of fried plantain, pepper soup, and grilled fish filled the entire house before he could even parked outside the gate.

But food was never the real reason she invited him over. It was always the same thing. Marriage. Children.

“Before I die.”

Kelly loosened his tie on his white long sleeve shirt as he stepped into the large dining room of his childhood home. The chandelier light made the room feel warm, calm and cool. The wooden furniture was still shiny and it had remained unchanged for years.

Everything in the house felt frozen in time. The same curtains. The same family framed pictures. The same ticking clock near the staircase.

His mother believed good things should not be replaced just because they were old.

“Kelly?” her voice called from the kitchen.

“I’m here.”Kelly replied.

A moment later, Mrs. Kate appeared carrying a bowl of soup carefully in both hands.

Even in her late fifties, she carried herself with elegance. Her silver streaked hair was wrapped neatly, and her sharp eyes immediately scanned her son from head to toe.

“You lost weight again.”

Kelly sighed quietly.

“Good evening to you too, Mother.”Kelly greet her mother..

“I’m serious.” She placed the bowl down firmly. “Do you ever eat properly?”

“I eat.”

“Coffee is not food.”

Kelly pulled out a chair slowly. “You sound like my doctor.”

“Maybe because both of us are tired of watching you destroy yourself.”

There it is.

Straight to the point.

Kelly removed his wristwatch and placed it beside his plate. “Long day.”

“You always say that.”

Because every day was long. Meetings. Contracts. Phone calls. Problems. People demanding things from him every second.

Sometimes Kelly felt like his entire life had become one endless negotiation. His mother sat across from him, studying him quietly while he served himself food.

“You look tired,” she said more softly this time.

Kelly replied . “I’m fine.”

“You have been ‘fine’ for ten years now.”

He almost smiled at that. Mrs. Kate watched him eat for a moment before shaking her head.

“You work is too much.”

“That company didn’t build itself.”

“And one day you’ll collapse inside that company.”

Kelly drank his water calmly. “If I collapse, at least I’ll collapse rich.” He replied.

His mother clicked her tongue immediately.

“Money is not everything.”

Easy for people with money to say.

Kelly leaned back in his chair. “Did you invite me here to feed me or lecture me?”

“Both.”Mrs Kate replied.

That finally pulled a small laugh out of him.His mother’s expression softened briefly at the sound. She missed hearing him laugh. These days, smiles from Kelly felt rare and expensive.

When he was younger, he used to laugh loudly but Now every emotion seemed carefully controlled, measured, locked away.

“Your cousin William came with his wife last week,” she said casually.

Kelly already knew where this conversation was heading to.

“Hmm.”

“And their baby.”

“There it is,” Kelly muttered.

Mrs. Kate ignored him.

“That little girl is very beautiful. Big eyes like his mother.”

Kelly focused on his food.

“She’s already walking,” his mother continued. “Very smart little girl.”

“Congratulations to them.”

She folded her arms together . “That’s all you will say?”

“What else should I say?”

“Maybe you should also think of giving me grandchildren before I become too old to carry them.”

Kelly closed his eyes briefly.c

“Mother..

“No, listen to me first.” Her tone changed slightly. “You are not getting younger.”

“I’m thirty four, not eighty mum.”

“And you think good women will keep waiting forever?”

Kelly gave a fake smile. “Trust me, relationships are the last thing on my mind right now.”

“That is exactly the problem.”

He pushed his plate aside slightly. “I don’t have time for marriage.”

“Nobody has time. People make time.”

“I can’t give somebody attention I don’t have.”

“You think marriage is only about romance and fancy dinners?” she asked. “It is partnership. Support. Family.”

Kelly looked away toward the rain falling down softly through the dining room windows.

“Family.”

The word felt heavier than usual tonight. He felt something cracked inside his chest.

His mother sighed.

“You come home to an empty apartment every night.”

“I like my peace.”

“That is not peace, Kelly. That is loneliness.”

His jaw tightened slightly.

“You make loneliness sound like a disease.”

“Sometimes it is.”

Silence settled between them briefly. The clock ticked steadily on the wall. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Mrs. Kate voice softened again.

“You were not always like this.”

Kelly’s eyes remained on the rain outside.

“People changed. Life changed them.”

“You used to believe in love once,” she said quietly.

That sentence landed harder than she expected. Kelly’s expression became unreadable immediately.

His mother noticed.

“Ah!”

“Still wounded. Even after all these years.”

“I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” she said carefully.

“No,” Kelly replied gently . “It doesn’t matter.”

But it did. She could always tell. There was a woman once. A long time ago.

Kelly never spoke about her anymore, but pain had a strange way of surviving quietly inside people.

“You shut everybody out after that,” his mother said gently.

“I became realistic.”

“You became cold.”

Kelly leaned back slowly.

“Cold people survive longer.”

Mrs. Kate stared at her son sadly.

“You speak like a man who’s tired of living, not a man enjoying life.”

That irritated him slightly.

“I’m doing perfectly fine.”

“You own buildings and businesses, yet you eat dinner alone almost every night.”

“That doesn’t bother me.”

“It bothers me.”

Kelly rubbed his hand on his forehead.

“I didn’t come here to argue.”

“Then stop running from the conversation.”

He looked at her eye directly now.

“What exactly do you want from me?”

“I want you happy.”

“I am happy.”

“No,” she said firmly. “You are successful. That is different.”

The room went quiet again. Kelly hated the way she looked at him, she could still see through him despite all the walls he had built over the years.

Mrs. Kate stood slowly and walked toward the cabinet nearby. She picked up an old framed photograph before returning to the table.

Kelly’s eyes darkened slightly the moment he saw it. A younger version of himself smiled back from the picture.

His arm rested around his late father while both of them were laughing at something outside the camera frame.

“You remember this day?” she asked softly.

Kelly nodded once. His father had been alive then. Everything had felt simpler.

Before responsibility swallowed him whole. Before betrayal taught him caution. Before success turned every relationship into suspicion.

“You used to want a family,” his mother whispered.

Kelly looked away again.

“People want many things when they’re young.”

“And when they grow older?”

“They learn.”

Mrs. Kate slowly sat back down.

“You cannot punish every woman for the mistakes of one person my son.”

Kelly’s face hardened slightly.

“I’m not punishing anybody.”

“Then why do you avoid Relationship like it will kill you?”

“Because Relationship always leaves damage behind.” He didn’t not say that aloud. Instead, he stood up calmly and adjusted his coat.

“I should go.”

His mother looked disappointed immediately.

“You just arrived.”

“I have work early tomorrow.”

“Of course you do.”

Kelly pick up his car keys. As he moved toward the door, his mother spoke again.

“One day all this work will end, Kelly.”

He paused.

“And when it does,” she continued quietly, “I pray you still have somebody beside you.”