Golden Gooses

12

     When the bus stopped outside of his house, Evan briskly walked off the bus with his head down. He tried to ignore the murmurs of those gossiping around him and his family as he left. Miranda and Timothy stood by the door, waiting to greet Evan with open arms. But they were left surprised when Evan brushed past them silently and went straight to his room. Miranda and Timothy exchanged a concerned look before following behind him. They stood outside his room door, ears pressed against it as they listened in on what he was doing. They heard nothing for the first ten seconds until muffled cries seeped through the door. Miranda immediately put her hand on the doorknob, getting ready to burst in. Timothy restrained her, holding her back with a hand on her chest. "Give the kid some sense of privacy. We don't know what happened at school, but it was clearly rough." Miranda cleared her head and sighed. "You're right." She took her hand off the doorknob and knocked. "Bud, can we come in?" Her question was met with silence for another ten seconds. "Mhm." Evan quietly agreed. They came in and saw Evan face down in his pillows, depressed. Miranda walked to the side of the bed, kneeling and putting her hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?" All Evan let out was a hiccup, struggling to gather up his thoughts. He sat up, hugging his pillow to his chest. "I just... I went to play, and, and-" He stammered his scattered thoughts before slumping into his mother's arms, sobbing. "Do you wanna talk about this another day?" She asked sympathetically. Evan shook his head, taking a deep breath to recollect himself. "I went to school, and, and, I made friends with this boy and this girl and I played with the boy but I hurt him and I don't know how and now everyone thinks I'm mean!" Evan unloaded the happenings of the entire day, wailing again at the end. He fell into his mother's arms again. She just held him and let him cry it out. "How did you accidentally hurt him? Did you explain it was an accident?" "That's the problem, I don't know what happened! We grabbed swords and played knights but they were sticks and I pointed my stick at him and something bright burst out and smacked him against a tree and he looked hurt really bad and everybody thinks I did it on purpose!" he wailed. Miranda let Evan rant, occasionally running her hand through his hair as she shot knowing glares at a sheepish and regretful Timothy. Evan cried until he fell asleep in Miranda's embrace. She laid him back down on his bed and tucked him in before yanking Timothy out of the room by the arm. "I am going to rip you a new asshole, how many times did I tell you something was up?!" She scolded, whisper-screaming as she stormed out with Timothy in tow.