Infinity Glyphs

Chapter 1 - The End meets the Beginning

Chapter 1 - The End meets the Beginning

Twelve hours earlier

'Kevin Turner,' echoed a voice through the house and up the stairs. 'Breakfast is ready!'

Kevin nearly missed the call. He was listening to a particularly exciting song while playing his favorite online RPG.

'Just one more round, grandma!' he replied, removing his headphone.

'You always take your time.' She answered with a mixture of kindness and exasperation.

Kevin smiled. Indeed, he couldn't even remember how many times that same dialogue had happened since the beginning of his summer vacation; but his grin didn't hold much longer: he remembered that today's had been the last one. School was going to start in the next morning.

'Have you cleaned your room?' the grandmother shouted suspiciously from the kitchen.

'Yes, of course.' The automatic answer left his mouth before he even noticed. He stood up and scanned his bedroom.

Now, this is a fair reason for grandma to get upset.

Some phenomenon between an earthquake and a hurricane seemed to have taken place there.

'Let me just finish the ... details, and I will be on my way.'

Kevin's bedroom wasn't big, which made the mess concentration even more intense. Sheet and pillowcases had slid from the bed onto the carpet floor. Piles of clothes could be seen here and there; the tallest one lay upon a red armchair in a corner. On the desk, apart from the computer and a few books, there was a collection of dirty cups, accumulated during his RPG campaigns, as he lost the habit of returning them to the kitchen. The left door of his wardrobe was ajar, presenting evidence that no organization system had been adopted inside it either. An old guitar was leaning awkwardly against the closed right door.

He hurried to minimize the chaos. Items identified as useful and clean were organized on the desk, shelves and wardrobe. Everything that was trash or dirty, including a pizza box, energy drink bottles and the cups, was placed by the door to be taken downstairs. Kevin then proceeded to the bed, starting by covering the pillows with their respective cases; he was surprised to realize that it was neither taking much effort nor time.

And I will never tell grandma that.

However, when Kevin picked up the white sheet from the carpet floor, his productivity decreased by a large factor. A cubic brown package had been buried in the blanket and was now bouncing on the spring mattress.

A pity gift.

Two days earlier, this parcel had arrived and it was addressed to Kevin. He had no idea what the content might be, but he was positively certain he knew its purpose. He raised his eyes without meaning to and they immediately fell upon the magnetic board hanging from the wall over the bed, which was full of pictures. He gazed at his parents: his mother had a placid face, wavy blonde hair and wide green eyes; his father was black-haired, with deep brown eyes and a very tidy look. He was wearing his Army uniform in almost every picture.

Kevin sighed. There it was, right in front of him: the reason he had to grow up with no parents around. Because of the Army, his father was relocated with insane frequency and, after trying to carry their son along twice, they had given up when Kevin was eight years old. Since then, the boy had been living with his grandparents in his hometown.

That small brown package represented yet another abandonment symbol in Kevin's opinion. He was used to this now: Tommy and Rebecca Turner tried to compensate for their absence with futile and useless surprise gifts. This one hadn't even come with a card.