Life is Well

Chapter 5

  “Dinnertime!” shouted mom from downstairs. I checked the time, which was 7:00 pm. Wow, time flies even when you’re doing something really boring. Right away I went downstairs and found my chair at the kitchen table. Since we were waiting for my siblings to show up at the table I was using my phone. Almost as quickly, they all showed up at the same time, it seemed.

“You know the rules Sahara,” mom inquired, “no phones at the dinner table.” I turned off my phone and stashed it into my sweatpants’ front pockets. Delicious, healthy food laid in front of us waiting for it to be feast upon. We all held hands. “Let’s pray,” she acknowledged. We always pray before we eat anything. That’s just the way we are. As soon as we finished off the prayer with an amen, we all started to fill up our plates and dig in. “So, how was school?” she nagged on us. I feel like that is the most asked question parents address their children.

“In science today we dissected frogs,” Jeremiah spoke up. “It was pretty cool getting to explore the anatomy of the frog. The skin was slimy and soft at the same time, but mostly slimy. Frogs also have a tiny brain, which I find awesome. Because of their tiny brains are they considered smart amphibians? Anyways, the coolest part was getting to cut the belly open, luckily nothing gushed out like blood or…”

“Okay,” mom interrupted Jeremiah to put an end to his frog lab, before it gets really descriptive. “It seemed like you enjoyed school today,” she added with a grossed out expression on her face.

“School was okay. The only thing that was fun was PE class, but everything else was kind of boring,” Zechariah said. “Why do they make us learn all this information when most of it we wouldn’t even use in our careers, or even need it in our lives? It kind of seems like a waste of time to me.” I feel the same way about the ‘Why do we have to learn this and that?’.

“How about you girls?” dad chimed into the school conversation.

“Well, instead of learning about frog anatomy, I learned more about the human body. I wonder if genetic disorders will ever become curable? Will they use a serum compacted with types of rocky minerals?”, Esther replied to dad’s question.

“School was,” I took pause to think, “school.”

“Really, school was school?” retorted dad. “That’s all you have to say. Nothing fun or exciting took place in any of your classes?”

“No not really,” I answered honestly. By the time the conversation ended there was a long period of awkward silence. There wasn’t complete silence because you could hear noise coming from the spoons hitting against the walls of the bowls.

“Well,” blustered mom breaking the silence, “your dad and I have something important to tell you guys.” My mom glanced at dad. They were having their eye fights trying to figure out who will tell us what. Dad ended up winning the battle apparently. “Your dad got fired from his job,” sighed mom with a frown upon her face.

“Why?” we all asked in unison.

“Don’t worry about it okay,” our dad begged us to let it go.

“Yes, don’t worry,” mom agreed with a voice of assurance, “we got everything under control.” That’s what all parents say with a problem, but then the problem ends up exploding in their faces. Hopefully that shall not take place for us. “Since it would only be me now having to support our family money wise, please limit your tastebuds for things. We’ll be receiving less money than usual,” pleaded our mom.

“I could help out with paying the bills and stuff like that. Whenever you need the money I can lend it to you,” requested Esther. My mom looked at my dad. There they are back at it again with their eye fights.

“Thank you sweetie. But,” bellowed mom, “your father and I think it would be best if you use stash up your money for College.”

“But,” Esther retorted just to be interrupted by dad.

“We will take care of this, we promise. Don’t worry,” our dad begged once again. As the conversation came to an end, so did our meals. Once dinner was over, I washed the dishes with Esther. None of us spoke a word. We were both just trapped in our own minds. Dishes got clean, floor was swept, overall it was a nice looking clean house. We all went to say goodnight to our parents, give them goodnight kisses (it’s not childish, it’s also grownupish), then went upstairs. As I was about to step foot in my room Esther stopped me.

“Psst,” she whisper yelled from her bedroom door that was slightly open, “quad squad meeting.” You’ll have to wait my bed, you’ll have to wait.
I went towards Esther door and entered her room. Jeremiah was sitting down on Esther’s soft shaggy grey rug. He was looking and I bet feeling comfortable wrapped up in his spiderman blanket. Zechariah was chilling on a lavender bean bag chair next to her lamp. I took the other bean bag close to the door, right next to Zechariah. Esther locked the door once I sat down. “I feel like we should all pitch in to help mom,” she told us, “ because she can’t do this alone. Let’s also carry her baggages.