Quiet Enlightenment

Part 1, Chapter 7 - Waterfall

Monday, February 24, 2014

"What's wrong, mom?"

Charmaine pulled the car down the alley on Panther street. She didn't answer her son (who was sitting in the seat beside her). Her attention was devoted to the fact that the side window was broken.

"Oh, no."

Kenton craned his head over and saw exactly what was wrong. Charmaine huffed and undid her seatbelt. Yes, it could have been robbers wanting to steal some copper, but she knew that it was just too much of a coincidence after showing Andrea the door.

"Baby, stay here."

Kenton undid his seatbelt and opened the door. There was no way that he was going to let his mother go into this dangerous situation alone.

"What the..."

Charmaine looked down at the doorknob that was sheared off at the start of Andrea's fit of rage. She turned around and started towards the front door. After unlocking it, Charmaine walked into the dining room and saw that the dining room was relatively unscathed. Her heart dropped as the idea of copper thieves started to seem like a reality.

She opened the door and saw exactly what was happening. Her hand went to her mouth as Kenton walked in behind her. Water was spraying everywhere. There was an odd hissing noise coming from the walk-in freezer.

"That... that... that BITCH."

Kenton knew that his mother didn't swear often. Given the circumstances, he could understand.

"We gotta turn the water off!" Charmaine said as she threw open the door to the basement and started down the stairs. She gasped again as she saw that water was leaking through the floor. With a twist of the shutoff valve, the spraying stopped.

"It's a mess, but I don't think that the water damaged anything..." Kenton said as he looked around the cabinets.

"I don't know when this happened, maybe there wasn't much time for it to do much damage." Charmaine said as she grabbed a chair and looked at the mess.

"Well... what now?" Kenton asked. Charmaine shrugged.

"At least she didn't torch the place. I'm going to call the cops. You better be heading off to school."

Kenton nodded and left the building as Charmaine got out her cell phone and dialed the police. He opened the back door of the car, grabbed his backpack, and walked off towards the school.

There was too much going on for the poor kid. First, his day was practically ruined by his mother's new restaurant being "underwater" and now he's got to confront his other problem: Olivia.

He walked down the hallway, snaking around corners before arriving in the Eighth-Grade hallway. He opened his locker and started to put his stuff away when he heard someone else behind him. He looked up to see Elias getting into his locker.

This was nothing new. What was new, however, was Mia coming around the corner. Kenton made like an ostrich and buried his head into the locker.

"Hey, Elias" Mia said as she patted him on the shoulder. Not being used to constant positive interaction with his fellow students, Elias winced a bit. Mia, knowing this, made it a game to try to pester him.

"Uh, hi, Mia." Elias awkwardly said.

"I'm sorry that I didn't get to ask you more about that movie."

"Heh, it's okay."

"Did you like it?"

"Yeah. Were you wanting to see it? I can return it today if you want me to..."