Snow Business

Chapter Two (Keira)- Dinner and a Movie

Keira:

            “Thanks for the ride, Chaz. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said as I stepped out of my best friend’s car into the chilly November air.

            “No problem, K. I’ll see you… when you pick me up tomorrow,” Chaz said slyly.

            I rolled my eyes, unhappy with the fact that I would need to drive. “Alright, bye.”

            “Goodbye,” Chaz smiled. “AND STAY SAFE, MRS. HOGAN!”

            Before I could retaliate, Chaz sped off down my quiet street and left me gaping at his beat-up car. I turned around and walked up my front steps to find that the front door was unlocked. My brother must have gotten an earlier ride home from practice.

            I opened the door and called a greeting down the hallway to my younger brother, Chase. When all I heard back from the twelve year old was a muffled grunt and the sound of an animated explosion, I moved on from trying to get the kid’s attention because I knew that I would never come out the victor in a battle for attention with his X-Box.

            I made my way to our sunny kitchen, which was dark at the moment because the sun had gone down and there were no lights on. When I finally flipped the switch, I noticed that my dad had left a note on the dry-erase board on our fridge. Sometimes, for days on end, that board was the only way that we could communicate with each other due to the hectic schedules of both my father and myself.

            My father works as a fireman at the county fire department and his schedule is anything but conventional. Sometimes he wouldn’t know until five minutes before when he would need to leave for work. Being the chief of the department, my dad carried a pager, which would frequently go off during family events and he would have to hop in his car and drive off to wherever the fire was.

            My friends often joke that my dad carries a pager not because he is the Head of Roster County Fire Department, but because he is a prostitute. Because, in the wise words of Brian Grace, “Who actually uses a pager besides prostitutes and drug lords these days?”

            It’s all meant in good fun, though. And my father does not find my friends’ comments event slightly offensive. Because Gregory Lynch is what Jack would call “a man dime.”

            My dad is in his mid-forties, but he is still in very good shape. He is tall, muscular, and has a hairline that has only just begun to recede. His brown hair has recently acquired some grey streaks, due to his strenuous daily activities and his hazel eyes always seemed to sparkle.  Greg Lynch often grew out his beard to a bit of small stubble that just made the mothers in our neighborhood croon. Never around him, of course. But I still heard it.

            To top it all off, my dad also had an accent, and Australian one. That’s right ladies, get in line, because Greg Lynch is not only a man dime, but also an Australian man dime. (Please note my sarcasm, my father isn’t looking to date anybody at the moment. He’s too busy being a single father and working on his under cover documentary: I Don’t Know How HE Does It.  And if you are reading this, you’re probably too young for Greg Lynch anyway.)

            I’m almost positive that both Amelia and Beth have had crushes on him at some point, and although I find this slightly weird, I can’t hold it against them. I had been convinced that I would marry him until I was approximately four.  You can say that I had a strong Oedipus complex.

            “Good evening, Darling,” I read from the board. “I should be home around 7:30 to eat dinner with you lot tonight. Try to have homework done so we can watch a movie. Love you, Dad xoxoxo.”