Only Once

Chapter Twenty-Six: Nosebleeds and Street Brawls

Chapter Twenty-Six: Nosebleeds and Street Brawls

It could be said that the Collins family household was in a state of pandemonium. Everything and everyone was proceeding along quite hectically and the fact that Christmas was just around the corner and they had yet to depart for their annual trip to Wisconsin had left all of them feeling exhausted and besieged.  

Each member of the household, however, was displaying their anxiety in their own unique way. Carol, for example, had sunk into an obsessive and compulsive state in which she constantly cleaned the house, perfected the Christmas decorations and couldn’t sit still. She had even gone as far as purchasing brand new pillows, arranging them on the coaches by colour and yelling at anyone who touched her handiwork. Joel, on the other hand, had resorted to solitariness and could be found either reading the paper in den, sleeping or cooped away in the kitchen, busy with the boxful of pomegranates he had purchased on clearance from their grocery store. He wasted his time by cutting them open and meticulously separating the arils from the peels. He had purchased so many though, that the family was most likely set until the end of winter.

Then there was Spencer, who had decided that the best way to make time pass and get rid of the pre-Christmas stress, as well as the whole Katie fiasco, was to invite his friends over and lounge in the den, doing absolutely nothing. They were lazily discussing dim-witted and unrepeatable topics while mildly paying attention to the Christmas specials that was airing on the television. Currently, they were watching an older holiday movie which none of them knew the name of. 

Finally, there was little Theo, who seemed to have turn to nudity and interrupted Spencer’s gathering by running into the room butt naked and wearing a Santa hat.

“Whoa, little dude!” Clay cried out when the child burst into the room. “You’re…exposed!”

“Theo, go back to Mom!” Spencer ordered when his brother proceeded to simply cover his face with a dimpled hand. He could hear his mother calling after him and thumping down the stairs.

Theodore, however, started manically giggling and prancing around the room.

“Well do something!” Spencer told his friends and rose from his comfortable seat on the sofa. “Catch him!”

“I ain’t touching no naked baby!” Jesse protested. “It’ll be like I’m violating him.”

“Yeah!” Russell agreed and stayed put in his seat. “We’re just abiding the law, you know.”

Rolling his eyes, Spencer chased after his younger brother past the den area and to the dining room table where he grabbed a hold of his small and bare arm.

“Got you!” he exclaimed teasingly and pulled the squirming child toward him just as their mother entered the room; she was holding some clothes and slightly out of breath.

“Oh, you’ve got him!” Carol smiled. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him but he’s become just so energized and hyper.

“Here,” Spencer grunted and pulled the laughing child toward his mother.

Smiling again, Carol started to dress him smack-dab in the centre of the den and Spencer and his friends couldn’t help but watch.   

When she was done, Carol turned to Spencer.

“Could you watch him for a bit?” she asked. “I’ve got to run over to the store to get some things.”

Spencer nodded and pulled Theodore into his lap.

“Stay.” He told the child and handed a toy for him to play with before turning back to his friends and mom. His mother, he noted, was still standing in the centre of the room but was now waving a cautionary finger at all of them. The expression on her face was quite menacing.