Mr. Forgettable #Wattys2016

14

As Larkin walked away from Finn's treehouse, fluffy gray clouds gathered overhead. About halfway home, they began to spit rain down upon her. After deciding that she didn't want to draw attention to herself by staying dry in the monsoon that was about to grace her town, Larkin stopped absorbing the rain drops and let them run down her face.

She swiped the water out of her eyes before following the cross-walk over 22nd Street. Her palms were sweating, despite the cool rain. The butterflies in her stomach were not left over from the close encounter with Finn; they were for her parents' reactions when they saw her walking home at five o'clock.

Larkin cursed her luck. Of all the days someone could have poisoned her, it had to be the day both of her parents were going to be home early. She didn't even have her cell-phone on her to text her mom an excuse.

After a good twenty minutes of walking, she reached her home. Larkin entered through the side door of her garage, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was empty. No one's home then, I suppose. Finally, a lucky break!

The door was unlocked, just like she had left it when she had fled the house two hours ago. She took her shoes off on the rug in the entryway, hoping to save herself from mopping up more water than she had to. A rattle of thunder shook the screens on the windows of her home, and Larkin could only hope that the power didn't go out.

As she made her way to the kitchen, the landline sitting on the counter rang. Larkin ignored it. She never answered that phone because it was usually the pharmacy calling about prescriptions or someone wanting her to donate to something or another. Larkin squeezed her hair out over the sink and let the phone ring four times before the answering machine picked up.

The shrill beep echoed through her kitchen, followed by Larkin's mother's voice.

"Larkin, I don't know where you are right now or what happened to that cellphone we pay for—"

Larkin blanched a hurriedly picked up the phone. She had forgotten to take her phone with her when she left. It was probably still in her backpack.

"Mom, I'm here. My phone died," she lied. Larkin hoped that her mother would believe her. On the other end, she heard her mother sigh in frustration.

"If this was any other circumstance, I would lecture you about keeping that thing charged so that I can keep in touch with you, but there are more pressing matters at hand," replied her mother.

Larkin could sense the urgency her mother conveyed. She thought she could hear the nervous tremors in her mother's voice, but that might have been the low quality of the phone speaker.

"There was another assassination attempt on your father. He was shot. The shot itself was not fatal, but I heard that he was found lying on the floor of his office unconscious."

Larkin paled. While she had been running from her problems in the woods, someone had tried to kill her father, and by the way her mother spoke, it sounded as if that someone had almost succeeded.

Her mother continued, not attempting to hide the wavers in her voice. "They found him in a pool of his own blood."

She wasn't fazed by her mother's blunt nature. Working as a lawyer, Mrs. Knolls had formed the habit of getting right to the point. Larkin heard a sniffle. Her mother was not one to cry. She decided not to acknowledge the sudden breakdown of her mom, and asked a question: "Where are you now?"

"He was airlifted to Des Moines. They have a specialty center there. I'm driving down there now."

"Oh." Larkin found it difficult to keep the disappointment out of her voice. She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember if it was still Monday. To her, it felt like days since she had last seen her parents. "When will you be coming back?"