Ineffable ꕥ Joost Klein ꕥ

49.

'If you don't put that down, Hendrick, I'll make sure Santa knows what you've done.'

Nanda didn't agree with her brother's parenting but she would rather not clean up shattered glass. She watched the small boy slowly lower the decorative trinket while under his father's piercing stare. Hendrick rose from his squat before turning back to the plastic bricks sprawled out on the rug. The old muse became new again, the mindless babble resuming like he hadn't just risked a moment of mania and chaos.

'Our lives were altered as soon as those chubby legs found their strength to stand,' Hugo said half-bitterly. He loved his two-year-old son to the ends of the Earth. His blonde hair, blue eyes and his explorative yet cautious demeanour made Hendrick the cutest thing to ever grace Hugo's life. But with curiosity came the horrors of grabby hands that didn't always grip so tightly. And now at the height of most coffee tables, Hugo and his wife, Tallulah, spent most of their time making sure nothing was within their son's reach.

'Do you mind watching him while I finish off the cake?' Tallulah asked Nanda. 'I haven't iced it yet since there was no way it would've survived the road trip here.'

'I can for a minute, but why doesn't your husband do that?'

'Yeah, Hugo, why don't you do that?'

'I'm watching him!' the man defended, gesturing a hand to his son from the sofa. His gaze then returned to the TV, where a football game was resuming after half-time. Nanda and Tallulah exchanged a look that communicated the same thing.

The truth was that Nanda would have gladly watched Hendrick all day. She loved her nephew, but any minute now, there was going to be a knock at the door that she had to tend to. Under no circumstances, could Hugo answer it out of a desire to be helpful. So, while Tallulah slipped into the kitchen, Nanda crouched to peer out the window as subtly as possible.

'You know there's a cigarette smell up in my old bedroom, right? Did you leave the windows open or something?' Hugo asked without looking away from the TV. Nanda cursed Joost's friends who had stayed over a few months ago. She knew that them smoking out the window would do the opposite of their intent.

'Sorry. Must have been one the neighbours in their back garden.'

'What, old Muriel and Jack? They'd keel over at the sight of a cigarette. There's no way they'd be smoking at their old age.'

'Their daughter used to smoke. Remember when we would come home from school and see her out the front?'

'Boy, do I remember...'

Nanda resisted swatting at her older brother's shoulder. The fantasising look on his face was half-hearted and he snickered when he caught his sister's glare. They both knew that his wife was the only woman he would ever think about.

The series of knocks against the front door made Nanda perk up. She felt Hugo's confused stare that moved from the TV to her retreating back. He would have gone to the window to see who had arrived, having not been told that they were expecting more visitors. But as a tower of bricks fell from Hendrick's clumsy hands, the sniffles and whines drew all of Hugo's attention.

Swinging the door open, Nanda ushered the couple in with a hushed greeting. The living room, where Hugo was consoling a sniffling Hendrick, was only a few strides away. She would hate for the surprise to be ruined in the thin, cramped hallway. It would also increase the chances of Joost being shoved back out the front door before he could even have a chance to talk.

'We brought strawberries because I didn't what else everyone would like,' Elke admitted. She held the bowl of cut-up fruits sheepishly while Joost shrugged of his coat behind her.