Silence

Chapter Four - Less-Explainable-Explanation

"...when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." – Sherlock Holmes

Chapter Four – Less-Explainable-Explanation

Jaron began his decent down the stairs, just as his parents emerged from their bedroom. 

"Hello sweetie, been up long?" His mother asked, quickening her pace to stand beside him at the top of the stairs. 

"Uhh, not really. Half an hour maybe."

Jaron's mother nodded curtly, but didn't say anything more. She took a quick glance at Jaron's father over her shoulder, before striding down the stairs. Jaron instinctively looked where his mother had, expecting to see his father following her down, but all he saw was the closing door to their bedroom click into place.

Still preoccupied with the events of the early morning, Jaron dismissed it and shoved his hands into his jean pockets as he trailed down the stairs after his mum. He felt the silky fabric of the ribbon in his left pocket. Jaron didn't really know why he felt the need to keep a hold of it. Maybe it gave his some reassurance that he had seen a little girl in his back garden this morning, and that he wasn't going mental. 

Breakfast was unusually quiet. Aside from eating, Jaron's parents kept their mouths shut. They still eyed him strangely though. A practice that Jaron was almost used to, after noticing it for quite a few years. 

But, as it was a change from the constant questioning that was practiced religiously during mealtimes, Jaron didn't make any motion to break the silence. Needless to say breakfast lasted a long time, at least to Jaron.

His foot tapped lightly on the ground as he waited for his parents to dismiss him. His fingers twitched in his lap and his eyes analysed the same patterns in the table over and over. He lifted his head when Jeffery uttered a soft "ahem" behind him.

"Yeah?" Jaron muttered, looking up at Jeffery. He held a phone up and thrust it towards the boy.

"It's for you," and with that, he walked away. 

Puzzled, Jaron looked over towards his parents, who appeared to be deep in discussion. He slid out the chair slowly, so as not to make any noise. He eased himself up and backed away from the table. When he turned the corner, he leapt for the stairs and ran up them, as if he was running for his life. 

Jaron slipped into his room and pressed his back to the door to close it, panting. He had almost forgotten why he had left the table, until he noticed the phone in his hand.

"Uh, hello?"

For a moment there was silence, a small shriek and a bang before a garbled voice flooded through the phone's speaker; "Oh! My! Gosh! Finally, I was wondering what took you so long. Sorry I dropped the phone. What were you doing? You took a while? Anyways, that's not why I called, I've emailed Ms. Parah and she said to ask you about what you entered into that writing competition last year, cause you know, I'm thinking about entering-" 

"Laylah!"

"Oops sorry, was I rambling? My mum always says that I talk wayyyy too much and then I get out on this big tangent of stuff that isn't even related to what I was talking about in the first place. You know people don't generally seem to like it, but to be honest, I-" 

"Yeah, no kidding," he said bluntly. "Um, look Laylah this isn't really a good time. I've kind of got to get ready and-" he didn't get a chance to continue before her words came screeching through the speaker grill.