Happy Families

Chapter 4- Accidentally Dead

Accidentally Dead

  Our punishments weren’t so bad since everyone ended up in trouble. Turns out Harry took the boys fishing. Do you know what three naughty teenage boys plus an annoying caregiver plus a fishing trip equals? All four of them in the lake and one being bitten by an eel. Don’t ask. It’s safe to say that Ansel and I have extra hours at the book store and Faye has to work at an animal shelter with Lucas while Cameron has to face the wonderful world of bait and tackle with Harry.

  Cameron was the one who grabbed the box of bait and tackle and hurled it at Harry which gave Harry concussion so he had to go to the hospital. They all had to go to the hospital actually since Lucas can’t swim and Ansel got a piece of boat in his foot. Cameron was the one bitten by an eel... Or so they tell me.

  So that’s what happened. Ansel and I now work two and a half hours from Tuesday to Friday each day and on Monday we have to work three hours. On Monday Diane isn’t there so we have to look after the store for her. I got trusted with the key since Ansel once lost his toothbrush so he isn’t allowed the key.

  Anyway today was a Monday and Ansel and I were just chilling in the store. A few people had come in and purchased books or browsed and I just sat there reading Life of Pi.

  “Why is your nose constantly stuck in that book?” Ansel startled me. He was right by my ear and it earned him a squeak from me. And I mean a squeak. Or something along those lines.

  I scowled at him. “It’s a good book and don’t do that again.”

  “What’s so good about it? And don’t just say a good story. Fuckingham has tried that with me a few times.” He made himself comfortable by lounging over the stool I was leaning on. I was sitting on the floor making my butt numb.

  I sighed. He already knows I write. “The descriptions are so beautiful. Each and every one has me sighing in content and the picture is painted to perfection.”

  He was looking at me intently. It was a little uncomfortable. “What else do you find beautiful?”

  “Besides books, reading and writing?”

  He nodded.

  I shrugged. “I find some art absolutely beautiful, landscapes at the right time, specific flowers, spider webs with drops of water on them in the early light of morning, rolling hills with grass up around your knees, hidden paths in the wilderness...” I trailed off. I started to describe my house then.

  “What’s your favourite flower?”

  The question kind of startled me. Why is Ansel asking me this? I shrugged again. “I don’t know. I guess the first one that comes to mind is the red rose. Only the deepest red though.”

  He looked deep in thought. He left it at that.

  I returned back to my book and continued being a nerd with my head in the clouds and my nose in a book.

  It was eight by the time Ansel and I got home. Harry and Leila were well gone because every fortnight on a Monday they have a date night because they know we will be exhausted from school and usually aren’t tempted to burn down the house.

  I walked in first and switched on the light. The thing that greeted me though made me scream an ear splitting scream that shattered the night entirely.

  “Holy fuck!” Ansel swore behind me. When he saw what I saw though, I’m sure the entire neighbourhood heard that he had more colourful language than a drunken trucker on steroids with his truck in a ditch and the cargo due on the other side of the country in less than three hours.