When the rains may come (Science Fiction)

44. A Normal Life

Clint returned from work to a dead silent apartment. Marie was on the couch in the living room, still as a statue. Her eyes were bloodshot and he could hear her breathing. Zack was nowhere to be seen.

Clint cleared his throat. "Um, everything okay?"

"No."

"W-What happened?"

Marie craned her neck and shot him a deadpan stare. "Call your son," she said quietly.

"Huh?"

"Call. Him."

Clint frowned, cleared his throat again. "Teddy! Come out here. We need to talk."

Zack walked in, his head hanging low, eyes never leaving the ground, shoulders slouched. Clint noticed he had a bandage wrapped around his right hand, covering his knuckles. Clint knit his brows.

"Tell your father what you did," Marie said.

"I helped a kid from getting beaten up–"

"He knocked out three of his classmates," Marie said. "One of them almost lost his tooth. The other two had black eyes and bruises all over their faces."

Clint stared at the two of them, flabbergasted.

"They were about to beat up Arthur!" Zack cried out.

"And what did I tell you about Arthur?!" Marie yelled.

"He interfered to help me!" Zack yelled back. "What was I supposed to do? Let them hurt him when he came to help me first?!"

Marie was about to yell again when she stopped herself. "Go back to your room." She pointed at the corridor. "Go and don't come out until you are asked to. You are grounded."

Zack looked angry. And on the verge of tears. But he just glared at them both before storming away to his room. There was the sound of a door slamming and then the apartment was silent again.

Marie's ragged breathing could be heard even louder now. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head. "This was the worst idea. To come here was the worst idea possible." She whimpered.

Clint sighed and sat close to her, put a hand on her back and patted gently. "Calm down, honey."

"I can't!" Marie snapped in a strained voice, as if she was suppressing a scream. She looked at him with his wild, bloodshot eyes. "I got a call from his school today. I went and they told me the things he'd done. It's barely been a few weeks since he started school. And they've already suspended him!" Marie pulled at her own hair, frustrated. "I was gonna apply there for a teaching job. What kinda impression is it gonna have now? We were supposed to be a normal family but this–" she groaned and buried her face in her hands again.

Clint kept patting her back. "There, there."

Marie sighed unsteadily before finally calming down. "Why wouldn't he just...listen for once?" she said in a tired voice.

"Would you really blame him for standing up for someone who was getting bullied?" Clint said.

Marie grimaced and said nothing.

Clint felt his heart ache for both Zack and Marie. Germaine and Watcher had both warned them against dropping their covers even inside their house. For all anyone knew, their next door neighbor might be a snitch for the steel heads and if they managed to overhear something then it would get ugly.

And he could see the strain of that arrangement on Marie's face now. She wanted to say so much more but even in a moment like this one, they had to put their mission above them.