The Strange, Strange Tale of Baghetti Jones

Dinner Time

"Dinner is ready." His sister Annette rudely said to him, as if he should have already known.

Jones and his older sister have an interesting relationship. Unlike Jones, she had lots of friends. She would rather spend her free time away from the house with her friends, which is why Jones liked his big sister so much. He never knew where exactly she went, but all he knew is that it wasn't home or school, some sort of "zone". Perhaps a fun zone, like the ones he used to visit for birthday parties when he was younger. Jones often pleaded to come along with his sister on her outings, but she had never allowed him. Perhaps his sister was saving him from the fact that he didn't have the best social skills?

Annette seemed to bring home a boy every now and then. Whenever he tried speaking to him, his sister would quickly rush Jones away. Jones hoped that they would get married as quickly as possible so that he could have a brother-in-law, which meant another friend. However, it seemed that Annette tended to control the boy frequently. Maybe he wouldn't want to marry his sister. Despite that, Jones knew that his sister was a good person, and hopefully the boy knew that too.

Jones and Annette also seemed to quarrel with each other. While Jones only needed a family dinner to forget about their troubles, Annette seemed to hold onto grudges a lot better. Despite this, Jones loved his sister. Their family was generally well behaved and compassionate towards one another. One day, Jones hoped to go on a big adventure with his whole family, rather than just his baby brother.

Jones headed out of his room and down the stairs to be met with his sister, father, and little brother seated at the dinner table.

"Jones, I've been calling you multiple times." His father spoke, noticing Jones trotting down the steps.

"Sorry, I didn't hear."

Jones would describe his father as cold. Cold as in, when he thought of him, he thought of cold things. Things like ice, or winter. This wasn't because his father was necessarily mean or anything. When jones thought of the rest of his family, he imagined a warm campfire. Jones had lots of fun, warm memories. His father was a very no-nonsense person who didn't appreciate Jones' antics.

Father was a busy man, too. That's probably why it seemed like he didn't like to have fun. Father was always at work, and when he was home, he seemed to bury his face in a newspaper with the exception of family dinners. He would only roam the commonplaces of the house when it was time for dinner or other meals. Jones knew he was always busy, so he never bothered him to ask to play.

Jones respected his father very much. He'd heard different conversations between his mother and father, about how there's no need for his mother to work, and that he would see to it that the children had the best life they could. Jones respected this because he hadn't done anything special to deserve his father's utmost priority, but nevertheless, he loved his father.

"Where's mom?" Jones asked, settling into a chair, ready to devour a bowl of mac n' cheese.

"Working late." His father grumbled, already almost done with his bowl. Jones' little brother just kind of served as background noise. He would babble about whatever babies talk about, and everyone would have their own conversation. Jones would occasionally incorporate baby babbles into the conversation as if the baby was contributing something to the discussion.

The baby babbled on, but everyone seemed kind of silent. Father was always much happier when mother was here, but he seemed like he got really sad when mother wasn't here to have dinner.

"Sooo... in case anyone was going to ask, I got the job at the coffee place down the road." Annette suddenly broke the silence.

"Oh, that's great, dear," Father responded blandly.

"Yeah, it's pretty great, all I have to do is mix frou-frou drinks all day and I get paid for it. More than minimum wage, too."

"You're like a real adult Annette!" Jones exclaimed, happy for his sister. His father chuckled.

"Far from it. She'll be a real adult when she starts paying for her own gas, phone bill, and all that other good stuff." His father snickered. Annette rolled her eyes.

Dinners sometimes seemed awkward. Which was weird, because everyone was family. But like meeting someone for the first time, everyone warmed up to each other and became comfortable with speaking.

"I made a friend today." Jones piped up. Father and Annette stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds.

"It's not another stray animal, is it?" His father asked, with a stern look on his face.

"No, it's a boy from school."

"What's his name?"

"Chubs."

"Really?"

"Well, his real name is Charles. He tells his friends he likes to be called Chubs."

"Is he nice?"

"Yeah, super nice! He offered to get me extra cheeseburgers for lunch!"

"Jones, it's impolite to let others buy you things you don't need. One cheeseburger for lunch is enough."

Jones didn't want to tell his father that one cheeseburger wasn't enough, they were small. He often went the whole school day hungry. But the father knew best. Besides, Jones figured that he would have to start working on his beach body soon.

"Annette, when are you going to introduce us to your boyfriend?"