Quiet Enlightenment

Part 1, Chapter 15 - From Rain Comes Flowers

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

One week had passed since the funeral. Life returned to normal. Well, as normal as it could be when you've lost your best friend.

The last customer of the dinner shift walked out of the restaurant. Charmaine walked to the door and locked it as the glowed with the orange of a July sunset. The wait staff and the line cook left out of the service door, leaving Charmaine alone in the building.

She walked into the dining room and turned off the lights, switch by switch. She walked into the kitchen and plopped down in a chair to take a quick breather before going home for the night. With a sigh, she rubbed her forehead.

"KA-THUMP!"

Charmaine opened her eyes and blinked.

"Hah!" "KA-THUMP!"

She knew what the sound was: a soccer ball being kicked around by an overjoyed kid. This wouldn't be bad, but there was too much of a risk that the soccer ball would end up sailing through the brand-new window.

"Hey, knock it off!" she snapped as she opened the service door.

"GOAL!" "KA-THUMP!"

The boy, whom Charmaine recognized from the elementary school, ignored her and continued his play.

"Cameron! You stop that right now!"

The boy stopped and thought about it before shaking his head and kicking the ball again.

"I'm serious!"

"So? You're not my boss. Besides, I'm outta that school anyway. You aren't the secretary of me." "KA-THUMP!"

Charmaine had enough at this point. With one swift action she ran in and stopped the ball with her foot, leaving the boy speechless.

"Wow... you used to play soccer, didn't you?"

Charmaine nodded before tipping the ball up with her toes and catching it with her hands.

"If I give this ball back to you, will you go kick it somewhere else?"

Cameron thought about it before nodded. Charmaine tossed the ball up and passed it towards him with her forehead. Amazed, he still managed to catch the ball. Without a word, he walked off towards the park.

Charmaine thought about the boy as she finished up the bookwork for the night and drove home. Kenton was where he had been for the past week: on the couch.

"Hey." He said unenthusiastically as Charmaine entered the house.

"Hey, baby." She said as she set her purse and other stuff on the counter.

"Anything good on?" Charmaine asked as she noticed that Kenton was staring at a blank television screen. Kenton could only shake his head.

"I'm just sitting here... thinking..."

"You really should get out of the house. Between here, your bedroom, and the bathroom, you haven't gone anywhere else for the past week!"

"I know, Mom."

"Aren't your friends going to be worried about you?"

"No, they have other things to worry about."

"Why don't you at least call Oliv-"

"NO."

With that, Kenton got up and stormed off to his room. Charmaine sighed as she turned on the television. Behavior that would have been shocking a couple weeks ago was now routine. After a couple hours, she concluded that he had indeed gone to bed.