Golden Gooses

14

    Miranda gathered up the courage to approach Evan, gulping as she took a step forward. "Evan, are you okay? What happened here?" She asked, stepping cautiously, a pit growing in her stomach. Evan leaped from beneath his cover, warning his mother. "No, stay back!" He exclaimed, his eyes shaking with frenzy. "The kid's right, get back!" Timothy added, yanking Miranda back into the doorframe by her wrist. "What are you doing?!" She cried angrily, agitated. Timothy held up a lock of her now-straggled, split hair. "Your hair was on end." He stated, examining it in his hands. It took a moment for it to set in, but Miranda was terrified when she realized. She turned to Evan, trembling. "I don't know what happened here, but the outliers of whatever caused it are still lying around." He explained. "Evan, care to come out? We can't come in, but it's clear whatever did all this doesn't affect you." Timothy interrogated. Evan weakly nodded, shuffling out of his room. They all walked into the living room and sunk into the couch, the silence deafening. Miranda and Timothy sat on one couch, while Evan sat on the other in front of them. "Evan, you need to tell us what happened here," Timothy instructed as Miranda clung to his side. "I—I heard you and Mommy arguing about what I did... I'm sorry, I just messed stuff up more..." He recalled regretfully. Miranda wept into Timothy's shoulder, overcome with guilt. Timothy looked away from Evan shamefully, before taking a breath and turning back to him. "What happened after?" "I didn't wanna hear anymore, so I was gonna read a book to ignore it. But when I touched the lampshade, the same bright things that hurt Joshua came out of the lamp..." He continued, looking down. Timothy looked to Miranda as she looked back up at him. She let go of Timothy and turned to face Evan, wiping her tears. "Listen, Evan." She started, implying he should look at her. He lifted his head and looked into his mother's eyes, on the verge of tears. "You're a very special boy. There are other children as special as you, but they're rare. You're just as rare. So rare, that people don't know much about you." Timothy gripped Miranda's shoulder, shooting her a look. "Miranda..." He whispered. She jerked her shoulder out of his grip. "He deserves to know." She whispered in return. She looked back to Evan, who was listening curiously now. "The people who don't know you think you're bad, and should go to a bad place." "Do you think I'm bad, mommy?" He sniveled. "No, of course not. We love you so much, and we'd never let the mean people take you to the bad place." Evan smiled slightly, assured. "But to make sure those mean people don't take you while we can't save you, when you're at school, for example, you must never let anyone know you're rare. Do you understand?" "Yeah, but how do I stop them from knowing?" Evan wondered. Miranda sighed. "I... can't tell you that for sure. Some things, even adults don't know. But I'm sure when the time comes, deep down, you'll know how." Miranda ensured, smiling. Evan wiped his tears again, beaming. "Ok!" Evan agreed, running over to hug Miranda. She shot Timothy a sly smirk as he jokingly rolled his eyes. She heaved him up into the air and over her shoulder as she walked him over to his bedroom. "It's getting late, bud. You still have school tomorrow." Evan yawned and nodded his head sleepily. She lowered him into bed and kissed his forehead before leaving his room. She dropped her demeanor exhaustedly, collapsing into Timothy's arms as he sat on the couch. She sighed deeply, looking up to him searchingly. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" She whined joshingly. "No idea," Timothy answered. "But at least it'll never be boring." He chuckled while Miranda laughed. He picked her up and walked to their bedroom, somehow more stressed yet closer than ever.