Scout: Chapter 2

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At an hour too ungodly to state, the Scout arrived at the airport to greet his family. The fact that it was his ‘family’ and not just his ‘ma’ meeting him today still made him squirm. The night he found out, he drank four crates of beer from the Demoman’s private reserve. He ranted and raved to his comrades in his alcohol-induced craze about the whole situation. It didn’t last long before the Medic (using a tranquilizer made for horses) sedated him and relieved the men from his drunken whining.

A hell of a hangover, no doubt. The mere thought of it made him dizzy.

Crowds of people filled the space around him almost instantly. It came in waves; from no crowd to no room, no crowd for a little while, then no more room again. He had sat through about three or four waves before he saw his mom emerge from the terminal to his immediate left.

“Scout! My baby boy, it’s been so long!” she scuttled over to him in her red high heels and lavish coat.

“Ma, it’s the middle of summer, what are you wearing?”

She backed up and looked at her outfit, “OH! I forgot I was wearing this! Don’t you love it though? My beau bought it for me.”

“Your what?”

“Oh Scouty-Poo, you’re going to love him! He’s tall, dark and HANDSOME. Not to mention he has an accent that drives me CRAZY.”

An accent, eh? She couldn’t have been talking about-

“He’s going to meet with us after breakfast, then you and Mel- ah shit, where’d she go now?!” Scout’s ma scanned the area, hoping her young companion had just wandered into a souvenir shop or a cafe or something, “Goddamnit. I swear, that girl is worse than you were-”

A small voice came from behind her, “Someone knocked off my hat… I had to go find it…”

“Oh, thank GOD!” She leaned down to the child’s level, “Now what have I told you about wandering off?”

The little girl didn’t answer, her eyes were fixed on the stranger behind her.

“Are you even listening- oh! Duh.” She ushered the child forward, “Scout, this is Melissa… Did your secretary friend tell you-”

“Yes. She did.” something about hearing Ms. Pauling being referred to as his ‘secretary friend’ rubbed him the wrong way. He looked down at the girl, “I uh… I guess-... It’s nice to finally meet you…” It would have been had he known about her existence for more than three days.

Melissa looked at the bags she was carrying, then back at her ‘father’, “We match…”

Now that she mentioned it, they were. She was wearing a red t-shirt, black shorts and hat just like Scout did every single day… “I guess we do…” that hat she was wearing, though, “Ma, is that my hat from high school-”

“I hope you don’t mind, she saw it in your room the first time she came over and, well, she hasn’t taken it off since!” She patted her granddaughter on the head, as if it would help make the situation any less awkward, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go get some breakfast! Scout will carry our bags, won’t you dear?”

“Of course, Ma. No problem.” he grumbled.

“Oh don’t be such a baby. You’re setting a bad example for Mel.”

Oh NOW he was setting a bad example. What ever made her think that he’d be a good example? Did she forget that her son was a trained killer for a living? Or how about the fact that he made his high school girlfriend a mother before she got a chance to go to college?

If his mom really wanted to set a good example, she would have never brought Melissa here.

God only knows what that little girl would think if she knew.

Little girl.

That was his little girl.

It made him want to vomit.

Or cry.

Or both.

Both is good.

Family Time #1: ScoutWhere stories live. Discover now