Everyone needs a little Hero

Surprises and Shelves

Hero crept through his house as quietly as he could back to his room. He was out early in the morning in hopes to take a peak and make sure to wish Maggie a good day one her way to something called daycare. Personally, Hero thought you should care for yourself every day, but who was he to question what humans needed.

The Borrower home was thankfully quiet and he managed to make it all the way back to his room and curl up into his bed before he heard his mother rummaging around in the kitchen. He heard the clatter of plastic plates and simmering water over the candle lit stove. Rats! He hoped he would get a few more minutes of sleep before everyone else woke up.

This was not the case.

Hero closed his eyes and pretended to sleep for less than ten minutes when he heard his door open and a hand grasp his shoulder.

"Hero? Hero, it's time to get up. You're coming with us to go borrowing," said his brother, Tiron. Hero stretched and tried pressing himself under the covers more, but Tiron wasn't having any of it. "Get up! Dad got me up. Do you want him to get you up?"

Hero's dad, Casper, was relentless and blunt when getting the children up for the day. There was no doubt that Hero would've been pulled out from under the covers and stood on his feet if his dad woke him up.

"M'kay," said Hero sleepily.

"Yeah, sure. You've got five minutes to get ready," said Tiron before he left Hero's room. Thankfully, Hero was already dressed and used the time to stretch and enjoy the comfort of his bed before drowsily shuffling to the kitchen.

"Morning, mom," said Hero as he came into the kitchen and saw a stack of pancakes in the middle of the table. Atlas and Cali were already eating while Tiron sat nearby fastening his shoes, pancake in his mouth.

"Morning, Hero," his mother replied as she wiped off her flour dusted fingers. "Sleep well?"

"Yes. Did you?" asked Hero as he took a pancake and tore at the edges. The warm, sweet bread had a faint smell of banana.

"Of course. Winnie slept all through the night, always good," said his mother. Hero's dad exited the bedroom, fully geared up, and kissed his wife before grabbing one of the circular disks and heading for the door.

"Day's wasting. Let's go," he said gruffly, one foot already out of the front door.

"Bye mom!" the boys called as they chased after their father, strapping on their gear as they walked. Their father had a list of things they needed to borrow today, and evidently the plan was to have the boys carry most of the stuff to keep him agile.

As they walked, they saw a few other Borrowers also heading out to their own borrowing adventures. They smiled and waved, but everyone needed to get going if they wanted to make the most of the morning while their humans were out and about.

Hero couldn't help but think about where the humans were going and if the humans in his care were busy today. Perhaps he would go take a peak and say hello to one of them. Sam, maybe? Yes, Sam. He was one floor away.

They went to the lift and made it just in time for them to take it up a couple of floors to one of the kitchens they frequented. The strands of lights whirred by, making a blur of light, before they made it to the right level. It took only a couple of minutes to arrive at the floor joist of the human's kitchen.

Now that they were here, their father turned to face the two young teenage boys.

"Do you remember what we're here for?" he asked.

"Chia seeds, oil, basket fruit, and tissues," said Tiron.

"Good. And from the bedroom?" asked their father, now looking for Hero to answer the question.