The World Without Colour

Chapter 19

Mornings were always the busiest time of day in the Casey household. With Rae and Ethan trying to get to school and their parents getting to work, it was so chaotic, they barely had enough time to sit down for breakfast before running off. So when Rae found her mother waiting at the kitchen table for them, she was worried for a second, before she realized she was smiling. Smiling for the first time in days.

Rae took a seat at the opposite end of the table to her already prepared pills. "Mom?"

Anne Casey looked up and her face brightened, "You be here... good. Can you be calling Ethan down, please? We be eating... together today."

Rae's eyebrows scrunched together as she ran back up the stairs. "Ethan?" She yelled a few steps from the top. There was no response.

She ran up to his door, which was again, locked. "Ethan?"

This time he did respond, though faintly. "Yeah?"

"You be coming down? Mom wants to talk to us."

"What? Okay, I be coming." Rae ran back down the stairs, and Ethan came a few minutes after her, rubbing his tired eyes.

He took a seat next to Rae and asked, "What be?"

"Yeah." Rae tilted her head towards their mother, who hadn't spoken at all yet. "What's up? And where's dad?"

Mrs. Casey narrowed her eyes and looked upwards involuntarily. "Up? The ceiling be, of course. This be some type of trick?"

Ethan cut her off. "Don't be minding her. What be wrong?"

"Actually, nothing be wrong. It be very good, matter of fact."

"So what it be?"

Her eyes crinkled like she was trying not to smile. It was just then that Rae realized how sick her mother had been before, and how well she had gotten at hiding it. "Well... your father got a job! He be leaving bright and early for it this morning!"

"That's great!" Rae said as Ethan whooped. "How? When did this happen?"

"Yesterday night actually— it be very sudden, very unexpected, but of course your dad be taking up the offer."

Rae shook her head, which was feeling very lightheaded all of a sudden. "That's amazing—wow. And where is it?"

"What it be?" Ethan said at the same time.

This time, Mrs. Casey didn't even try to suppress her grin. "Sir Wagner— you be remembering him? Head of Security, strange fellow— anyways, he said he be needing a personal assistant and your father be just the man for the job!"

Rae froze halfway through putting the pill in her mouth. She could hear Ethan whoop again beside her, but a buzzing in her ear seemed to dim everything. "Oh— did— did he say why?"

This only seemed to make her mother beam more. "Actually, he be saying your father be having excellent leadership skills." And a daughter he can spy on, Rae thought. "Of course, I be a little taken aback, no interview or anything, but the timing be so perfect. And Sir Wagner promised excellent wage. And you don't even need to pay your own child taxes anymore—"

"—That's okay, really—"

"You know, I think I be wrong about him."

"Mhm." Rae said, because she had already put the pill in her mouth and also because she had no idea what to say to that.

"I mean, when he be calling your father out, he really only be doing his job, right?"

"Mhm."

Ethan pushed back his glass of water. "This all be great, mom. I think we be late for school, so I'm just going to—"

"Oh, that be reminding me... I heard from Chelsea's mom, who actually heard from Riley's mom and— well, I heard that Sir Wagner be visiting your school. Did you be knowing why, Rae?"

Rae choked on her pill. Ethan sent her a quizzical glance as he thumped her on the back. "Did you, Rae?"

Rae spoke through her watery eyes. "Um— I— I heard— I think he just be here to talk to— the principal or something."

"That be making sense."

"So, like I be saying," Ethan interrupted. "I be needing to go now."

He stood up and gave his mother a peck on the cheek before heading for the front door.

"Uh uh!", she got up and followed him, "You not be eating your pill!"

"I'll have it on the transport," he yelled. "We be late already!"

He ran out through the door, leaving it swinging open behind him. Rae caught up to her mother, chuckling. "Well, I be needing to go too. Bye mum!"

Still waving, she left the house, watching Ethan's distant figure in front of her. Her footsteps sped up to a run as the transport engine buzzed to a roar. Despite her suspicions about Sir Wagner, her day had started out pretty well. And it was almost funny, if it weren't so sad, how extremely terrible the rest of it was going to be.
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A.N: Hmmm, any guesses?

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