Status: New and I LOVE IT!
Fire And Fifth
2
When Emmry and I walked through the pale yellow front door, we never expected what we saw. After at least 24 years of marriage and two kids my parents still know how to get spicy, especially on the stairs. Emmry just burst out laughing and my cheeks flushed with obvious embarrassment, which mirrored my own parents' shocked and guilty faces.
"Ugh..." Is all my father could mutter, who must have felt like an idiot for setting such a lovely example for his two teenage boys. Emmry just walked into the kitchen, still laughing with a red face, and I decided to walk back out the front door with my head hung low. I'm sure I'm scarred for life, the image burned at the back of my eyeballs. I shuddered, that was disgusting. The smell of Durham was cold, like smelling a freezer and the sky was overcast and grim looking, so nothing had a shadow. The world was bland.
Yet, I felt that same tingling sensation that could be compared to every nerve in my body being pricked and poked with by tiny, microscopic needles. I lifted my head to see her walking on the opposite side of the street, her head low as her hair hung over her face.
"Olivia!" I called out to her, which was a big mistake on my part. Her head peaked up for a moment, stared at me with slight recognition, and then she kept walking. As uneventful as that was, a longing grew in me for her that I knew shouldn't be there, intensifying when she looked away and started walking again. I wanted to tap into her mind, see what she was thinking, but as the distance grew between us that tingling sensation disappeared.
I heard the front door open behind me, my father's voice booming over the yard, "You can come back in now, son."
I turned around slowly, my face blank but my insides disgusted. I know that sex was natural, everything does it somehow or another, but when it's human, I believe its a private matter, and nothing between my parents is something I should walk in on. My father's face looked stress and angry when I looked up at him, which meant that the Circle was having a mass meeting tonight. Whatever topics they were going over meant my father was stressing over an issue that needed to be discussed with everyone in the Circle.
This did worry me a little bit, and I wondered if it had something to do with Olivia, if one of the others who felt her had told their pants about her, in which signaling secret chaos within the Circle, then Olivia was royally screwed. As those thoughts came, I wanted them out, refusing to think about them was not an easy task. I found Olivia intriguing, I didn't want her to end up like outsiders would if they became a threat to the Circle.
After following my father inside, I quickly went through the hall and grimaced as I passed the stairs. My room was tiny, cluttered, and blue. Ocean blue, dark blue, navy blue. It used to be my favorite color when I was a kid, but the fascination for anything blue died and was replaced by anything black. Of course, my parents refused to repaint my room to black, but at least I tried.
When I walked back towards the front of the house my mother was in the kitchen, preparing something quick for us before we left. Bread, mustard, mayonnaise, turkey, ham, lettuce, and tomato were already covering the small counter space on the island in the middle of our lightly lit kitchen. I could smell the lettuce as she rinsed it with sink water and began cutting it in nice strips.
"Sorry about that, Michael. Your father just had a really bad day." She apologized, and I just shrugged. I loved my mother more then most people, because she wasn't a hard ass like my father, and she was totally goofy and made me laugh. "The Circle wants us all meeting together, as you probably already figured out."
"Do you know what it's about?" I asked her, leaning my palms against the cool surface of the gray counter top.
"Something about Lightworkers flooding the town and a big epic battle." She explained, waving the knife around drastically. Lightworkers...I remember learning about them when I was thirteen. They weren't evil, or vicious, instead they were people who were incarnate Angels, with abilities that the Circle feared. Lightworkers weren't strong by default, but they were clever and when they learned all they could about their abilities, could easily destroy any of us from the Circle.
Lightworkers weren't obvious to spot, but sometimes when one was really strong, too strong to hide themselves from us, we could feel them. That made me think of Olivia, and that tingling sensation I felt whenever she was around. If she was a Lightworker, that meant my interest would get us both in trouble.
"Anyway, you'll know all about it at the meeting. The Elders are really stressing this one."
"Whoo! Sammiches!" Emmry screamed as he threw his hands up, walking into the kitchen with a big smile on his face. I shook my head at my brother's goofiness, something he got from my mother. I, however, was just as serious as my father was, and I didn't crack jokes all to often.
My mother giggled at my brother, an infectious giggle that sometimes brightened the room, "Yes, lamb chop."
"Mom!" Emmry screamed at his embarrassing nickname from when he was a kid. Just like my obsession with blue, he had a thing for lamb chops down at Morrie's Meat house on Main Street. Too bad the place closed a couple months ago, otherwise we'd still be eating there every Thursday for dinner.
If I thought about it, the life in this town was slowly being sucked away, the days were colder, and the nights became shorter, even though we were coming closer and closer to Spring. Businesses, fun hang outs, and restaurants we all enjoyed when we were seven to thirteen started going out of business, replaced by things I didn't want to even want to look at. It made my heart drop to my stomach, but I knew that growing up meant giving up the fun things. At least, that's what my father teaches us.
"Ugh..." Is all my father could mutter, who must have felt like an idiot for setting such a lovely example for his two teenage boys. Emmry just walked into the kitchen, still laughing with a red face, and I decided to walk back out the front door with my head hung low. I'm sure I'm scarred for life, the image burned at the back of my eyeballs. I shuddered, that was disgusting. The smell of Durham was cold, like smelling a freezer and the sky was overcast and grim looking, so nothing had a shadow. The world was bland.
Yet, I felt that same tingling sensation that could be compared to every nerve in my body being pricked and poked with by tiny, microscopic needles. I lifted my head to see her walking on the opposite side of the street, her head low as her hair hung over her face.
"Olivia!" I called out to her, which was a big mistake on my part. Her head peaked up for a moment, stared at me with slight recognition, and then she kept walking. As uneventful as that was, a longing grew in me for her that I knew shouldn't be there, intensifying when she looked away and started walking again. I wanted to tap into her mind, see what she was thinking, but as the distance grew between us that tingling sensation disappeared.
I heard the front door open behind me, my father's voice booming over the yard, "You can come back in now, son."
I turned around slowly, my face blank but my insides disgusted. I know that sex was natural, everything does it somehow or another, but when it's human, I believe its a private matter, and nothing between my parents is something I should walk in on. My father's face looked stress and angry when I looked up at him, which meant that the Circle was having a mass meeting tonight. Whatever topics they were going over meant my father was stressing over an issue that needed to be discussed with everyone in the Circle.
This did worry me a little bit, and I wondered if it had something to do with Olivia, if one of the others who felt her had told their pants about her, in which signaling secret chaos within the Circle, then Olivia was royally screwed. As those thoughts came, I wanted them out, refusing to think about them was not an easy task. I found Olivia intriguing, I didn't want her to end up like outsiders would if they became a threat to the Circle.
After following my father inside, I quickly went through the hall and grimaced as I passed the stairs. My room was tiny, cluttered, and blue. Ocean blue, dark blue, navy blue. It used to be my favorite color when I was a kid, but the fascination for anything blue died and was replaced by anything black. Of course, my parents refused to repaint my room to black, but at least I tried.
When I walked back towards the front of the house my mother was in the kitchen, preparing something quick for us before we left. Bread, mustard, mayonnaise, turkey, ham, lettuce, and tomato were already covering the small counter space on the island in the middle of our lightly lit kitchen. I could smell the lettuce as she rinsed it with sink water and began cutting it in nice strips.
"Sorry about that, Michael. Your father just had a really bad day." She apologized, and I just shrugged. I loved my mother more then most people, because she wasn't a hard ass like my father, and she was totally goofy and made me laugh. "The Circle wants us all meeting together, as you probably already figured out."
"Do you know what it's about?" I asked her, leaning my palms against the cool surface of the gray counter top.
"Something about Lightworkers flooding the town and a big epic battle." She explained, waving the knife around drastically. Lightworkers...I remember learning about them when I was thirteen. They weren't evil, or vicious, instead they were people who were incarnate Angels, with abilities that the Circle feared. Lightworkers weren't strong by default, but they were clever and when they learned all they could about their abilities, could easily destroy any of us from the Circle.
Lightworkers weren't obvious to spot, but sometimes when one was really strong, too strong to hide themselves from us, we could feel them. That made me think of Olivia, and that tingling sensation I felt whenever she was around. If she was a Lightworker, that meant my interest would get us both in trouble.
"Anyway, you'll know all about it at the meeting. The Elders are really stressing this one."
"Whoo! Sammiches!" Emmry screamed as he threw his hands up, walking into the kitchen with a big smile on his face. I shook my head at my brother's goofiness, something he got from my mother. I, however, was just as serious as my father was, and I didn't crack jokes all to often.
My mother giggled at my brother, an infectious giggle that sometimes brightened the room, "Yes, lamb chop."
"Mom!" Emmry screamed at his embarrassing nickname from when he was a kid. Just like my obsession with blue, he had a thing for lamb chops down at Morrie's Meat house on Main Street. Too bad the place closed a couple months ago, otherwise we'd still be eating there every Thursday for dinner.
If I thought about it, the life in this town was slowly being sucked away, the days were colder, and the nights became shorter, even though we were coming closer and closer to Spring. Businesses, fun hang outs, and restaurants we all enjoyed when we were seven to thirteen started going out of business, replaced by things I didn't want to even want to look at. It made my heart drop to my stomach, but I knew that growing up meant giving up the fun things. At least, that's what my father teaches us.