Jude hit end on his phone and laid it down on the side table. The device seemed to mock him as it lay there with a black screen, ironically in disuse. It was a week later and this was the fifth time he had tried to get ahold of Edith, but so far it had been nothing but radio silence. He knew she was home in a small town was he supposed to believe there would no cell service?
Jude threw his hands in his hair tugging on the long black strands and laid back on the bed. Staring at the navy blue ceiling he heard the pounding of feet across the roof top, probably his little brother's footsteps running were they were not suppose to be. It confounded him how dynamically different the twins were and yet they fell into synch without problem no matter how long it had been since they had shared a womb.
He thought about kids. Would he ever have any? Sure he wanted some but would he be able to support them sufficiently? Give them the life they deserved even in his career path? Probably not, if he did not marry rich it would be stretching every dollar he had just to feed them every night. Not to even mention paying for their college. But it hurt him every time he saw kids running around the square at his university in there after school programs. They were precious and deserved better than anything he could ever give them. Jude glanced back over at his phone.
What if Edith was hurt? How was he to know if she was okay? He did not know her mom, she had never been to the uni and had no reason to because Edith never performed. Maybe he could contact the admissions office and ask for her mom's number. Or would that be a breach of privacy?
"Boys! Dinner!" His moms voice penetrated through the floor and closed door of Jude's brothers room. He listened to the roof and heard the scramble of his brothers as they jumped off the roof and most likely snuck back in through their window. Because of his moms job each boy could have his own room but coincidentally Ben often times slept on the floor of Oliver's room. Ben suffered from insomnia but was also afraid of the dark so he stayed with Oliver so he could stay calm at night.
"Jude come set the table!" His moms voice came again forcing him to roll out of bed and make the trek down stairs. He was sore. Not from anything he had done but from doing exactly nothing. He was the only one from his town who went to the university and by his sophomore year he had fallen out of touch with his high school friends. Most of them were burn outs who had lost interest in him around the same time that Jude had lost interest in smoking pot.
Jude slunk down the stairs letting gravity do the work of bring him from the second floor to the first. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he rounded the corner into the brightly light kitchen that was full with the smells of baking chicken and other comfort food aromas.
Elaine was flitting around the room pulling stuff out of the fridge and from the counter putting more ingredients into the pot on the stove. This was the stuff he missed about home. The warmth and the smells made with love that he could not find at school no matter how hard he looked. Many times Jude had spent hours sitting in the student union just to be around the noise and conversation he was used to hearing in his own home. Living alone was hard when he had grown up around noise and indefinite liveliness.
"Jude hand me the salt." His mom turned from the stove and snapped her fingers at him to get him to hurry. He swiveled and found the salt resting on the counter. Grabbing it and tossing it to her he moved around to fill his cup with water. When was the last time he drank something?
"Jude, can you mash these potatoes? I need to go check the chicken." His mom spoke to him over the sound of water boiling over the pot lid. She poured some salt in, then stirred and placed the wooden spoon across the lid. Jude set down his cup, which had turned purple where the water had touched it, on the counter and walked around to the other side where she was.
