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Chapter 2: Lunch

        Mom called me downstairs again about an hour after I saw the headline. All I'd been doing since then was searching to see if I could find any more information, no such luck. I walked down the stairs again, the stairs sounded like they might break because with every step there was a loud and obnoxious creak noise, but I knew that they would hold together, after all I did walk down them a lot to get to and from my room.

         "You need to eat your lunch," mom said, not looking up at me and continuing to prepare a large meal that I suspected was to try to impress my dad and his colleagues. I took the plate of food that she had laid out for me and went to sit down at the table, which now had a different cloth on it.

         "Ah ah ah!," Mom said in her mom voice,"I set that table all nice and pretty with a new, clean cloth. I don't need you to mess it up now. Hurry along and eat in your room or somewhere, but not here. I cannot take any risk at messing this up."

         "It's only 11:00 why am I having lunch already anyway?"I ask.

         "Because you do not need to eat with your father's colleagues," she simply stated.

         "Why is this lunch meeting such a big deal?" I stand up from my chair and move toward the creaky stairs.

         "This is so important because this lunch could mean the difference if you have a bed to sleep in tonight or not," she said sternly. I didn't ask any further question because I didn't want to anger her. You did not want to see her angry. Also I kind of liked my bed. A lot.

         I creaked my way up the stairs and set my food down on my bad to go get my laptop and put it on my bed too. I continue to search and refresh site pages to try to find any more information on the Washington DC situation, but once again found nothing. I ended up playing a very old game that my dad put on here. It was called "Minecraft" even though it was the most pixelated thing ever, it was so addicting.

         While I played I thought. I thought about how I almost never got to see my dad. And how I was never really close to him. I don't even think mom was ever really close to him either. He's always so busy with work. He was some major or general or something along those lines which apperantly meant that he got all the paper work which had the side-effect of family detachment.

         I played Minecraft until I heard a knock on the door. I was so interested in what my dad and his friends were going to talk about, but I know I shouldn't even try to eavesdrop. But what's the harm? What if they don't notice me and I can finally figure out what dad's work is all about. Why he always has to be away from me and mom. Why this lunch meeting is so important for my bed's existence. But Mom wouldn't warn me that I'm to young for no reason. I playing it back and forth in my head whether or not I should eavesdrop and time was running out before I would no longer have a chance. Bad and good were on my shoulders and I didn't know which one to agree with because they were both shouting at me loud enough to burst and eardrum. Then finally something happened, and I just knew what needed to happen, and make my decision easily.

         I walked to the door on my room and then very quietly and slowly opened the door. The hinges in the door were luckily greased enough so it didn't make much noise when I opened to door. I set my bare foot down on the cool hardwood floor of the hallway, it sent a shiver up my spine. I tip toed as quickly as I could, but only as quickly as I could go while maintaining my stealth. I sat down by the stairway leaning my back hard against the wall and strained to hear whatever I possibly could.

         I got there just in time to hear exactly what I wanted, "Hello, Major General Grey, we have called this emergency meeting with you today to discuss an event that has recently happened, I'm sure you've heard of it. The Washington DC incident?" Says a mans voice in a low and smooth tone.