Final Oath {Octavian}

IV

"Well hello, Octavian," he chuckled.

"Oh, I see that dinner is all ready. That's nice. Coming home with a meal every night." He smiled at my mom.

My mom smiled back and blew a kiss at him.

"Oh honey, give me a real one, please?"

My mother then leaned in to give him a peck on the lips. I put my hands over Lucretia's eyes and because of that, unfortunately, there were no more hands to cover up mine.

"No PDA please..." I complained.

They rolled their eyes knowingly and then they sat down on the chairs surrounding the table. Surprisingly, while we ate, nobody mentioned about the taste of the spaghetti or the meatballs. Perhaps we were all too in a good mood.

"How was school today?" my mom asked.

"It was good!" Lucretia blurted out. "We learned all about Alaska!"

"What did you learn about it?" my mom asked.

"Well, I learned that we live in Alaska. Obviously." she giggled. "The flag has the star shape of a big spoon. I think it was called the Big Dipper. We also colored the flag! It was fun coloring but I used up all my blue marker."

We nodded, trying to show her that we were listening. But the usual topics that a six-year-old has interests in are quite boring.

"How about yours Octavian?" my father asked.

I shrugged. "It was okay. I forgot to do the homework again though."

My mother groaned, "How many times do we need to remind you to write your homework down on your planner?"

"I don't know."

"Well then, you should use it," my father explained. "It's really good for organization skills. Just how a legion of Rome would be."

I leaned back and smiled happily. I loved the tales that mother and father told us. The stories of Romulus and Remus, Julius Caesar, Augustus (my namesake), and the ones of Rome were my favorite. They told them in such detail—especially the ones of the gods and goddesses, it's as if they met them personally.

"What was the homework you forgot about?" My mother inquired.

"About our grandparents," I said plainly. "But I could only write about Grandma Serena and Grandma Holly."

My two parents glanced at each other.

"What about grandpa? I mean you've told us that they died but what were they like? What were their names? How did they die? Things like that."

"My father's name was Apollo." My mother said carefully.

"Like the god you told us in stories?" Lucretia piped.

"No, not the god, but yes, the same name," she said. "He excels at any instrument he plays. He was a really warm person, he was outgoing, but he's strict and serious at times. He really cared about us. But I didn't really get to know him that much since he was always away at times. He was a very busy man."

She then smiled. "But from what I heard, he also writes haikus."

But she leaned in closely to us and whispered, "But they are really bad."

We giggled and her face relaxed as well.

"What about your dad, dad?" Lucretia asked.

"My father's name was Bacchus. Yes, apparently, both or our families had a slight obsession with the Roman myths. This is why we know so much about them. He was the type to have fun and he liked to throw parties. He was really good at that, not to mention. But he didn't have time for us."

"Oh," was all I managed to say.

"So," I asked. "Is that it?"

My parents looked at each other again. For the second time. I wonder what was up.

"Yes," my father said. "That is all."