Current Moons | Obx

002 | Boats 'n Motels.

"MORNING H," John B mumbled as he crossed pass his nine year old sister, who was currently busy working on a new piece of artwork. For her age, she was surprisingly good at drawing. And most the time, it was all she did. Some sort of coping mechanism, apparently. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"Finishing my drawing for Dad." She replied, fiddling with the green colouring crayon in her hand. Harriet loved creating all these pictures for her father, in hope that when he returns from sea— like John B says he will, she could give them all to him. It made coping with it all a little easier.

He knew his sister well enough to know she wasn't going to let this go. After their dad went on his 'temporary vacation' John B made it his mission to learn every small detail about his sister so he could even try and raise her somewhat right before he returned.

So far, he had learnt that her favourite colour is green, second being pink. Her favourite animals are dinosaurs and ladybugs— she can't pick between them. She is asthmatic, her favourite food is mac and cheese, she hates wearing tight clothes and she's allergic to peanuts. He already knew some of that obviously, especially the more important stuff, but he'd taken the extra time to learn anything else. Harriet didn't know he was trying so hard.

There was a heavy hurricane the past night and day, which put Harriet pretty much on lock down inside the house. She complained when her brother and his friends still got to go out to surf, but it was only safe for her to stay back. She didn't get much sleep that night, the loud thunderclaps and rain on her roof made that hard.

"No power, great." John B sighed as he tried to flip the light switch, which inevitably didn't aluminate the room. "Yo, JJ, you been outside?"

"I have polio, bro. I can't walk." JJ mumbled back, half of his face being planted into the pillow on the couch. JJ usually stayed over with the Routledges and Harriet didn't mind, JJ had known her since she was very young so he almost just felt like a second brother.

"What's polio?" Harriet asked as she put her crayons back into their packet and got up from her seat, following her brother outside. She was glad the storm was over, but sad about the damage that was probably done. Especially to the animals, like the ladybugs that lived by the biggest tree in the yard.

"That's no good." John B yawned as he clumsily made his way down the porch stairs into the yard, throwing his hands up to the back of his head. "That is not good."

"Not good." Harriet parroted, fiddling with the loop in her shorts.

They walked around the yard, checking out the initial damage. Harriet first ran over to the tree, and she couldn't see any ladybugs, but the tree was still up. So she had hope they were okay and just hiding or asleep.

"Agatha did some work, huh?" JJ called out as he finally left the house, drinking from a can of beer.

"Yeah, she did." John B groaned, trying to pull branches from the boat.

"I thought you had polio." Harriet furrowed her eyebrows, placing her hands on her hips as she walked back over, trying to avoid stepping on any split branches.

"I got healed." JJ shrugged, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"How?" Harriet questioned, narrowing her eyes.

JJ didn't respond but just motioned to the can in his hand and Harriet rolled her eyes. She had tried beer once, a year ago, when her father decided she could just try a little. It was more than enough for Harriet to decide she never wanted beer again. Plus, she hated when people were drunk.

He burped before dropping the can to the ground and walking over to meet John B. "Ew." Harriet scrunched up her nose as she followed.

"What you thinkin'?" JJ asked.