On the Ledge

The Robinsons

WEDNESDAY 21: 12

It was 9 PM when he came home. He shut the door behind him.

" I'm home!" he announced and took off his shoes. He heard footsteps from the kitchen.

" Oh, Sam. Where were you?" his mom Priscilla asked in a worried manner.

" At Sophia's. Didn't you get my message?" Sam's forehead creased in wonder.

" No... Oh, you know what..I didn't check my phone. But nevermind, come to the kitchen. There are still some leftovers from dinner."

" Thanks, mom." he kissed her on the cheek and entered the kitchen. Suddenly, he heard someone run from the living room, shouting his name.

" Sam! Sam! Look what I found!" he glanced down to see his three year old brother Tom run up to him holding a fistful of candy in his hand. Sam grinned.

" Hey, little buddy! You might wanna keep it down a bit. The neighbours might be sleeping, okay?"

" Okay." Tommy smiled.

" But where did you find this?" Sam asked.

" Mommy said a fairy brought it for me. I found it under my pillow when I woke up. And the broken tooth that I put there the day before was suddenly gone." Tommy said with a slight lisp.

" Oh, really?" Sam snickered playfully.

" Yeah, and then mommy said that if another tooth falls off that I should put it under my pillow so that the fairy can pay me a visit."

" That's a great idea." Sam said while serving himself with leftovers.

" Sam?" he heard his dad ask from the living room.

" Yeah?"

" Where the hell were you this late at night? I thought we were gonna practice today." Mr Robinson complained. Sam reheated the food in the microwave and went to the living room. His dad was sitting at his favourite sofa watching football on TV. Tommy ran up to him and sat on his lap while he ate pretzels. Sam leaned onto the door frame.

" I was at Sophia's. I messaged mom but she didn't read it."

" Why didn't you message me? I'm your parent too, you know."

" I thought mom would tell you."

" Well, she obviously didn't, you smartass!" Mr Robinson raised his voice. " This never happens with Haley. When she goes somewhere she always keeps us updated. It wouldn't hurt you, if you looked up to her once in a while." he said, munching on a pretzel.

" Ben, don't blame him on something I did wrong." Priscilla came from the kitchen. " I didn't see the message. It's my fault. Case closed."

Mr Robinson grunted in response. Sam sat down with his dinner on the sofa while his mom did the dishes in the kitchen. Sam, Tom and Mr Robinson watched the match in silence for a while.

" Where's Haley anyway?" Sam finally asked.

" At the movies with her friends. She said she was gonna go see this stupid action movie kids nowadays watch." he said while slurping his tea.

" Kingsman?" Sam asked.

" Yeah, I think it was something like that."

Sam cleared his throat. " Dad, you know we can train tomorrow when I get back from school. It's just that today I really wasn't able to..."

" Yeah, yeah. I get it. Today wouldn't be possible anyways. I got back from work one hour ago."

" What happened?"

" Pregnant woman with AIDS. Asked her who her previous sexual partners were and she kept insisting she had only had sex with her husband. So, we had to call her husband in for obvious reasons, who also kept insisting his loyalcy never wavered. So, when I asked him if he'd be ready to prove his loyalcy by doing the test he turned me down. That bastard didn't want us to draw his blood. So, I told him that if he didn't let us draw blood there's a high chance he might die in a matter of years. So, we tested him. The lab results came out just when I was supposed to head home. So, I had to stay in a bit. And guess what, he tested positive for HIV. So, I had to call him into my office again. And so he came..." he explained as he took a sip from his tea mug. "When I revealed him the result the guy wasn't surprised one bit. This whole time he knew and completely mislead his poor wife. And the worst thing is that this guy is not even straight! He was compliant enough at the end to give me a list of all the guys he had fun with. Tell me, how many people do you think our macho here had sexual intercourse with?"

" Uh.. Eight?" he speculated.

" 21." his dad revealed.

" What?!" Sam couldn't believe his ears. " How is that even possible?"

Ben chuckled. " I don't know. You should ask him."

" That's unbelievable."

" You'd be surprised, son. These gays will be the extinction of our species. I don't mind them as long as they stay away from me and my family. I'll be happy to treat them because it's my duty but I don't want anything to do with them otherwise."

" Yeah." Sam agreed but he felt a pang in his chest.