Good Night, Good Luck

Chapter I

I jump out of the plane, feeling the fast air zip right by my face. The clouds look so light and fluffy on this beautiful sunny day. How could this have happened. It's so gorgeous here, I think as I pull the dangling string on my parachute and lurch up, then slowly come down. Beyond the bright sunshine and the white clouds, I realize what I got myself into.

* * * * *

Two days ago

Waking up on a bright sunny day is enjoyable, especially when you are off of work and get to sleep in an extra hour. I turn around on the bed and see my beautiful wife Layla next to me.

"Good Morning," she says in her charming voice.

"Good morning. We should probably go wake the kids up."

"Yeah," she says, "You're right."

We both slump out of bed, get dressed, and start heading down our hallway to our children's room.

"Good morning, time to get up," Layla says.

Both of our children stretch, and complain for a little while, then get out of bed. Once they are dressed, we all head to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Daddy," my son Nick asks, "Can we watch TV while we eat?"

I think through my head as that being an original child request.

"Of course Nick," I say smiling.

"Yay!" Nick and my daughter Hayley scream a cry of joy and fight over the remote to the television.

I walk over to the refrigerator and grab out the orange juice carton and eggs, then turn on the stove.

Finally, after the eggs were done cooking, my family and I sat down to eat. I glanced at Nick and being the hyper child that he is, he started to chow down on his food. I looked over at Hayley, but she was pleasantly eating her food, using her utensils and all.

Layla looks at the television and her eyes get wide.

"In the city of Harran, there has been a terrible outbreak of an unknown pathogen. It takes over the body, shutting down the the functions of the brain and-" the news person on the TV says until Serena turns it off.

"They don't need to be watching a horror movie," she says.

"But mommy," both of our children say.

"No ands, buts, or whys, you listen to your mother, and she says no," I scold them.

"Yes daddy," they say disappointingly.

"Here we go, watch some Bubble Guppies," Serena said as she turned on the channel for it.

"Yay!!" they both scream again and then start singing the theme song with the TV.

Serena and I look at each other, smile and laugh about how cute our little kids are.

"Alright now," I say, "Let's settle down and eat."

"Okay," they say in harmony.

Being my week off of work, I get to spend the time with my family.

"Hey, how about we go to the park after this," I say reassuringly.

"YEAH!" they scream on the top of their lungs, "I'm going to go get my shoes on right now."

They run to their rooms without finishing their food, or clearing their places. Since their so happy just over the park Serena and I know that they both will shatter at least one dish or glass, so we do it for them. Once we are finished we start to get snacks, blankets, and toys for them to use. We get into our black GMC and drive to the park.

When we arrive, my kids jump into the playground, and the see the swings.

"C'mon daddy push us on the swings. C'mon, let's go!," they plead as they pull on my shirt.

"Alright," I say as I stumble from the tugging on my shirt.

My children laugh and scream as I push them and Layla snaps several pictures for child hood memories.

After about two more minutes of pushing my kids, I get a terrible phone call from my dreadful boss at work.

"Lucas, get your damn ass down here!"