Killed On Purpose

4

It was the following morning in the Maxwells' house and it couldn't have been more lively albeit half of the family had already left. Still, it was bustling with conversations, humorous bickering and magic shows.

Lazz and I gave Chris his present last night, but he was too tired to open it then so he left it for the next morning. Ever since he woke up, he hasn't put down the hat, the cape and the magic stick, and he was getting on mum's nerves alarmingly fast.

"Chris, I swear to God..." she warned him for the nth time as he whooshed past her, shouting abracadabra and waving his magic stick. Mum sighed and sat down on the dining table where we were already seated. Breakfast was laid out in front of us—some boiled eggs, freshly cut veggies, smoked salmon slices and crispy toasted bread—and everyone except Chris was almost already done eating.

"Lazz, finish up and let's go take a look at the car," dad chewed the piece of toast then said to Lazz who nodded swiftly, agreeing to dad's proposal. Chris whooshed past dad now so dad turned around and tried to catch him by the edge of the cape yet failed. I knew he was irritating dad, too. "Christopher, stop acting like Snape with that cape and sit down to eat your breakfast." his voice was more stern than mum's, but Chris was already gone in the other room to hear him.

"How do you know who Snape is?" Vince, who was sitting opposite of me on the table, spoke for the first time this morning, and shot dad a confused look. He was not a morning person.

"I've had much more free time lately to catch up on the trendy things," dad answered him. "like watching Harry Potter and learning some hip abbreviations and emojis."

Ever since dad retired almost two years ago, he's been trying to rest from years of work and stress. The whole chaos that happened when I got kidnapped, with Jade, and with taking the CIA director down, really took a toll on him. He couldn't continue working and was glad they approved his early retirement, but sometimes I thought he was bored out of his mind. He was used to work on the field, to quick minded solutions and danger packed missions, and he sometimes looked even miserable when mowed the lawn or watched a soap opera with mum.

Vince barely contained his laugh, but probed further. "Some hip abbreviations and emojis, huh? What does 'LOL' mean, then?"

Dad's eyes lit up, probably knowing this one. "Laugh out loud,"

"How about WTF?"

"Why the face," dad replied and sipped on his coffee proudly, not knowing this one was kind of wrong. Jade giggled from the other side, but said nothing.

"Now, how about the eggplant emoji with the hand emoji?"

Gio happened to be drinking from his glass of orange juice, but as Vince asked this, he almost choked on the liquid. Jade, Lazz and I remained quiet, but Erica slapped Vince's arm subtly without dad seeing. Dad thought longer about this one.

"It's eggplant picking." once again, dad got it wrong, but I was glad he did this time. Gio couldn't help but intervene this time.

"Andrew, who tells you these things?" he asked him, but managed to keep a straight face. Dad frowned.

"There's a Facebook group for older people to learn these things." he said then directed his thimb to mum. "Sarah is part of the group, too."

Mum immediately protested, shaking her head and laughing. "I left it 5 minutes after you put me in it. It's a ridiculous group, honey,"

Dad looked actually hurt, but only rolled his eyes at her and dropped the subject.

The breakfast continued with Erica scolding Vince quietly about the subject he started earlier, Jade, Gio and mum talking about the baby's gender and possible names, dad reading his e-news, Chris still running around, and Lazz and I contently eating our food.