flowers from 1970 (republish)

Chapter 10: quite the man

Usually, when George waited for Dream to call him, he'd occupy himself with his work. He had finished early though so he had nothing to do, and no call to expect since Dream was going to go over to his sister's for a while and leaving the phone at home.

He sat in silence in his room for a while before deciding he'd spend the time outside. He had not gone on a walk for a while so he decided it would be best, and also because he knew Dream would get mad at him for not using his free day wisely.

He put on a hoodie, pocketed his phone, and trudged downstairs, walking outside onto his porch.

He checked the flowers, and as expected nothing had grown yet. It was the scary part about growing flowers, in the beginning you don't know if anything was happening at all yet.

He decided he would go to the park. He brought a small notebook and pencil to sketch his surroundings as he used to do with his mother when he was young.

He caught sight of the swingset and found a bench close by. He sat down, sighed, and started scratching lines on his notebook.

"No Tommy, I told you not to be mean, and you didn't listen." George heard a woman say. He turned around and saw Niki, scolding Tommy who looked grumpy.

"But I want ice cream like Tubbo! It's not fair." He cried, but his mom wasn't letting up.

Niki pointed a finger at him, "I told you a million times. Don't be mean to girls! What do you do? You call Cara 'Puffy' until she cried."

Tommy's mouth gaped open, "SHE LIKES TO BE CALLED THAT. IT'S HER NICKNAME, MUM!"

"Fine then," Niki said, "if that didn't make her cry. What did?"

Tommy put his head down in defeat, "I chased her around with a stick and told her if I got close enough I'd poke her."

Niki groaned, "Tommy, you can't go around doing that."

"She de-deserv-"

"Deserves?" Niki finished.

"Yes. That word," Tommy pleaded.

"Why does she deserve it?" Niki tried to understand her son.

Tommy waved his hands, "She's a girl!"

Niki sighed and turned away. She caught sight of George on the bench and waved, "Oh, hello! You talked to my husband the other day I believe?"

George nodded, "Wilbur. Yes." He smiled at her and then gestures toward Tommy, who had his arms crossed and flared his nose up when he looked at him, "So that little man is still being trouble, I see."

Wilbur was walking with Tubbo toward them now. Tubbo looked at Tommy, "Here Tommy, we can split it!"

Tommy was trying to stay pretend mad, but eventually gave in as Tubbo gave him some of his ice cream.

Wilbur's eyes glanced at Niki and George talking, "George!" He exclaimed, "Pleasure to see you here."

"Hello Wilbur," he greeted, "how was the meet up with your father?"

Wilbur thought for a second, "Quite odd. He's constantly refused to come home here but suddenly we get a call saying he's on a flight to Florida and to get the guest room ready."

George chuckled, "Dinner go well, though?"

Wilbur nodded, "I'd say so. Tommy was a bit shy and weary of him at first, but he warmed up to him when he protected Tommy from uncle Techno."

George smiled, "Seemed like a good time."

Wilbur shook his head with a grin, "We don't even have a guest room." He rolled his eyes, "He took Niki and I's room and made us sleep with Tommy."

"Sounds like a very 'old person' thing to do." George told him, and they both shared a laugh.

Wilbur watched George closely, almost as if he was waiting for a certain reaction, but found nothing there.

"Oh," Wilbur saw George's book and pencil, "may I borrow your pencil for a moment?"

George nodded and handed him the pencil. Wilbur took out his pocket notebook and scratched a few lines on before returning it, "Thank you."

George took the pencil, "No problem. What brings you to the park?"

Wilbur turned to Niki and then back to George and whispered, "In all honesty, to escape my father."

"He that bad?" George said.

"Not necessarily." Wilbur explained, "He lives in England. Obviously I'm a Brit and I was born there, but he wasn't. Anyway that's too long of a story, basically he's moody because he's old and because of jetlag."

"I've actually thought about how funny it was that us Brits ended up in a neighborhood a couple houses from each other in Florida." George joked.

Wilbur nodded, "Yeah, well," he ate a spoon of ice cream, "dad bought us a house here, said Florida was fun. I mean who'd say no to a house."

George was giving what Wilbur said some thought when suddenly, out of nowhere, Techno was

walking towards them, pulling at his hair.

"You come here to escape him too, Techno?" Wilbur grinned.

Techno rolled his eyes, "He keeps wanting me to fight him." He complained, "An old man wanting to fight me."

Wilbur turned to George, "Dad and his old friend used to come over and teach us how to fight. We'd fence, kick-box, you name it."

George let out a breath of laughter, "Sounds like quite the man."

"That he is." Techno said plainly as he picked up an ice cream cup from the table.

"Oh Techno," Niki said, and Techno turned toward her, "that's Tubbo's ice cream, he left it there to go play with Tommy."

"So I'm stealing from a child?" Techno questioned, "That makes it so much better."

George thought he actually was going to steal the ice cream, but he put it down and sat on the table part of the bench.

"So Techno, you're American but I presume you and Wilbur are brothers?" George asked. Techno nodded, "Got used to this country, I guess."

"It's an impressive American accent." George complimented

"Yeah well, I do it because it sounds better than my British one." Techno admitted with a shrug. "Niki are you sure Tubbo doesn't want this ice cream?"

"Let it alone, Techno." Niki scolded, and Techno sighed in defeat, he couldn't win against her.

There was a vibration coming from the bench, George checked his phone but it wasn't his, "It's not mine that's ringing, I reckon it's yours."

Wilbur checked his back pocket and indeed his phone was ringing, "Oh, it's dad." Techno glanced over, "What does the old man want this time." He said plainly.

Wilbur answered, and George could hear faint mumbling. "Mhm." Wilbur said, "Yes, I have, dad. No that's tomorrow, not today. How do I know? Dad you were the one that wrote that date down, how do you not know? Alright that's fine. Bye dad."

Techno raised his eyebrows.

"He was just uh- checking in on where we went. Said it was a mistake leaving him alone in the house."

"Oh no, what did he do to the house." Niki said.

"We'll have to see." Wilbur sighed, "We're going to head home now, George. I'm a bit scared as to what he's done to the house, but maybe if we get there earlier enough we can prevent more damage."

George laughed, "Alright then. It's getting late and I should probably head home as well."

Wilbur smiled, "Sounds good. Have a nice evening, George!"

"You and your family as well." George waved them goodbye.