Good morning and Happy Hump 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.
Now that there will be no trial, Uncle Benny has to decide what he wants to do. A call from Ethan's mother solves that, so it's back to Imperial for the boys! See what's happening in this week's chapter of Bad Karma and the Family Plan. Don't forget to visit the other Briefers. Their links follow my tale. Enjoy!
Time to leave Atlanta, although Benny wasn’t really
sure where he wanted to go, now that he was free of his poisonous ex for a long
time to come. But that question was quickly answered the next morning when he
called his sister, aka Ethan’s mom, to tell her the news.
“Are you sure, Maureen?” he kept repeating. Ethan
and I had finished packing and were waiting for Benny to be done and then we’d
check out of the hotel. “Is he okay with it?”
I had to assume by “he” was meant Ethan’s dad, the
right Reverend Thorne.
“Thank you. And thank him too. I’ll see you soon.”
He hung up and turned toward us, his expression both relieved and surprised.
“Looks like I’m heading back to Imperial,” he said. “Your mom invited me to
stay with them until I figure out what I want to do. So, if you would, can you
drop me at the bus station, please?”
Of course Ethan nixed that idea immediately,
insisting that it was not out of the way to drop his uncle off. Besides, that
gave him the chance to see his family again before we started the next leg of
our journey. And didn’t that sound ominous? The fact that he was being
deliberately obscure worried me, but I shook the feeling off. I trusted Ethan
too much to believe he would ever do anything detrimental or not in my best
interest. He’d certainly demonstrated over and over how much he loved me, to
what lengths he would go for me.
So back to Imperial for us. We’d only been gone a
couple of days, which was probably why it felt like coming home again. Or maybe
it was the warm welcome we received, especially from Maureen, but also Joseph. Or
maybe it was becoming my home away from home, to be honest. Whereever Ethan was
was my first home, of course, as he possessed me heart and soul. For his part, Ethan
was most definitely pleased, I could tell. Whatever made him happy was pleasing
to me, so there you go.
“Can you stay for supper?” Maureen asked. “Spend the
night? Then you can get a bright and early start and not worry about traveling
in the middle of the night.”
Of course, we’d done more than our fair share of
that over the years, but I wasn’t opposed to spending another night not in a
motel. But what happened next totally shocked me.
“You guys can take my room for the night,” Joey
suggested. “So you won’t have to sleep on the floor.
Ethan looked almost as surprised as I’m sure I did,
but their mother did look very pleased. Will wonders never cease?
“Thanks, but Uncle Benny should,” Ethan began, but
Maureen was way ahead of him.
“I’ve already cleaned out my sewing room for Benny,”
she said. “With Sarah’s help.”
“Thanks for the offer, bro, but we’ll be good
downstairs,” Ethan said with a smile. Bro? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard
Ethan call him that before. Joey nodded his understanding. So much to take in
at one time.
I had to suspect that one reason for Ethan’s
arranging for us to be downstairs was that it gave us more privacy than if we
were upstairs with the others. I wasn’t sure if I could entice him into making
love, though, when they were still so close. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I was
comfortable with that idea. But it didn’t matter. Just being together was what
counted. The rest could wait until we got home. Besides, if we were downstairs,
it would be easier to walk Benny.
to be continued
Now go see what's up with the other Briefers!
No comments:
Post a Comment