The Time Hopper

Plans Going Awry

It had been a long time since I had stayed for dinner at the Tir Na Gog. Usually we would pop back long enough to speak to everyone, forage enough food from the kitchen to fill our stomachs, and then leave again. I could only hope that Consequences and Marie put down my extended stay to what happened with Obsivian, assume it had shaken my confidence enough that I needed to touch base for a bit longer before returning to my usual life. In truth, I had missed it, even if I hadn't noticed it before I sat down at the long table loaded with food and surrounded by my family. Consequences wasn't there, of course, because Marie always took him food to the docks rather than expecting him to leave, but Marie and Omega were. 

"So, where's Sam at the minute?" I asked through a mouth full of pasta and garlic bread. Marie gave me a stern look. 

"Don't speak with your mouth full, Sadie. And he's just out on a mission for Consequences, run of the mill. Nothing to worry about." She told me. He always was, more or less, meaning I barely ever got to see him in the present day. Omega would also sometimes leave, but rarely, and it was always whenever Felix got too close and he couldn't resist trying to do him in. I happily joined in with the rowdy conversation, and even Riley was more than happy to chime in. Between all of us who could actually pretend like everything was normal, we managed to keep those who couldn't act from seeming too suspicious, mainly by doing something we shouldn't whenever one of the grownups tried to talk to them. Eventually, the dinner was over. 

"Come on, Riley, let's go and find that tire swing in the woods." I said once Marie dismissed us, taking him by the hand and trying to drag him out of the room. Before I could, Omega cleared his throat and shook his head. 

"Actually, Riley, Consequences wants to see you. Says he has an idea pertaining to what you were speaking about earlier. Off you go." He said, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. I looked at Riley, concerned, but he smiled. 

"It's alright, nothing to worry about, but I do need to go alone and it might take a little while. Figured while we were here I'd ask a few questions, I'll tell you about them later. I'll come find you in your room when I'm done." He told me, face relaxed enough that I believed him, even though I was suspicious as all hell. But Marie sat up a little straighter, wagging her finger at him. 

"Nuh uh, you are not going into Sadie's room. You're down the hall from her, and if it's after nine o clock when you get back, it can wait until the morning." She said firmly, enforcing the same rules all my siblings lived under. Apparently they had been trying to negotiate a higher bedtime for years now with very little success. Still, I found it ridiculous, and I couldn't help but let out an incredulous laugh. 

"Really, Marie? We aren't even here most of the time, and then we sleep wherever and whenever we want!" I pointed out, but she just shook her head again. 

"I know that you don't have any rules when you're out on your adventures, which is why it is even more important that you have them here. When you're in my house, you will follow my rules, and that is final. Now go on Riley, don't keep Mr Consequences waiting." She said, shooing him out of the room like a mother hen. I was left just stood there, not knowing what to do now. I could go to the tire swing on my own, but it wasn't as fun without an audience to play to and I suspected that all my siblings would have either outgrown it or be too preoccupied with our upcoming escape to mess around. I went up to my room for the first time in months, looking around to see if there was anything I wanted to take given I wasn't going to come back here unless something went really wrong. 

Marie had done a decent enough job of keeping the place clean and dust free, but it wasn't enough to keep the stale smell from the air. She had tidied up a little, made the bed, but it was still my room. Nothing I needed, but a few bits I wanted to take here and there. A picture of me with my parents tacked onto the mirror, I wanted that. A small stuffed rabbit I had as a kid, and that was it. Kind of sad, in a way, that I could only find two things of sentimental value to try and keep. Well, I supposed that Riley was where most of my attachments lay. That and my parents, but I had to figure out where they were before I could do anything about them.