Good morning, Happy Hump Day and Happy St Patrick's Day! If it's Wednesday, then it must be time for more flash fiction from the Wednesday Briefers! We're a group of authors who bring you our finest flash fiction every week, 500 to 1000 words, inspired by one of our prompts.
Evan has stayed home with Kamal and Madhu because of the babysitter's illness. Chan tells himself he isn't worried, but is he? See what's going on in this week's chapter of Super Trooper. Don't forget to visit the other Briefers and see what's up with them. Their links follow my tale! Enjoy!
Chan wasn’t worried about the situation at home.
Well, maybe concerned, but not worried. And it wasn’t a situation. Things liked
this happened all the time, surely, where one parent had to stay home with the
children rather than go to work because of circumstances.
Not that he and Evan were their parents, but they
were responsible for them. And Chan loved them more than anything. He was sure
Evan did too. With time, his siblings would warm to Evan.
He hoped.
Chan glanced at the computer clock again. Almost time
to go.
He’d called home during the course of the day. More
than once. Not that he expected anything to be wrong. He just wanted to see how
everyone was doing. Just because he braced himself to hear screaming in the
background was a testament to his concern for everyone, not any doubt in his
partner’s ability to run things smoothly without Chan being present.
And he was very pleasantly surprised by how peaceful
everything actually seemed. He tried to talk to Kamal, but he was playing with
his friends and couldn’t take the time to talk to his big brother. Madhu was
sleeping when he called. Besides, she wasn’t much of a conversationalist yet.
So all was well. Still, Chan couldn’t wait to get
home and see what was happening for himself.
Time to leave came at last, and tonight he didn’t
have to stay late. The branch manager was there for that. So Chan finished what
he needed to do, bid farewell to his co-workers with promises to see them the
next day, and took his departure.
When Chan pulled onto the quiet residential street
where they lived, he saw Kamal and several of his friends engaged in a game of
kickball in the street. They immediately moved to the side of the road at the
sight of him, well out of the way of his car as he parked in the driveway
beside Evan’s cruiser. Chan knew his parents had allowed Kamal and his friends
to play like that because it was a very safe neighborhood, and the boys were
careful and vigilant regarding traffic, which there was little of. The
residents were equally watchful of the younger residents, and no one had ever
been hurt. Chan expected them to return to their game once he was out of their
way. But, as he climbed from his car, they ran toward him instead, all speaking
at once.
Oh
dear, what now?
Chan cast a concerned glance at his brother, before
trying to sort out the babble of young male voices. It took him a second to
realize they were just excited, not upset or angry or anything the least
worrisome.
“Have you been inside the police car?” “Are you
going to be a trooper too someday?” “Does he let you run the siren?” “That car
is sooo cool.”
Chan couldn’t help but smile. Apparently Kamal had
been showing off Evan’s patrol car, and his friends were more than impressed,
they were ecstatic. Score one for Evan.
“Yes, I have been inside the car,” Chan replied. He
wasn’t sure which question to answer first, and that was the easiest one. His
words were greeted with a multitude of oohs. “Many times.”
“That’s so cool,” was repeated by the boys. A quick
glance at his brother showed Kamal fairly bursting with pride, just as happy as
his friends. That had to be a good sign, right?
“Does Kamal really get to ride in the car too?”
“Yes, sometimes he does.” On rare occasions, they
did use the cruiser, mostly for short trips.
Now Kamal was the center of the admiring glances of
his friends. Good time to go inside and see the rest of his family. He tousled
Kamal’s hair. “Come in soon and clean up for dinner,” he told them. “See you
guys later.”
He walked through the door to find Laksha sitting on
the couch, her nose in a book. Madhu sat beside her, also looking through a
book. But to his surprise, Evan sat on her other side. He was pointing out
letters and words and pronouncing them for Chan’s little sister. She never said
a word, but her sharp eyes followed his movements with great interest.
Chan’s heart swelled at the sight. He was so happy
to be here, with his family. For a moment, he stood there, silently drinking
everything in.
Evan looked up and smiled. “Welcome home, love,” he
said.
No comments:
Post a Comment