The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 40

Ody's eyes drifted closed as he lay there in his sleeping bag with a tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach that irked him and would not go away. It was a weight he couldn't discard. It pulled him down and he couldn't quite figure out what was wrong.

Just before he drifted off to sleep, Ody could feel the bedroom door open and a small figure walk in. Her body was small, and he almost couldn't make out who it was due to the lack of light.

"Penny, what's up?" Ody said as he rubbed his eyes, sitting up in the sleeping bag. The girl didn't respond. She walked over to him, sat down on the ground beside him, and met his gaze.

"What's wrong?" Ody whispered. He felt that indescribable stress hanging in the air once more.

"Ody- I-" Penny choked on her own words. "Something's wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothin' feels right," Penny whispered. She wrung her hands nervously.

"Give it time. We just got back. Everything will be okay. I'm sure of it." In the dim light, Ody could see her head moving up and down as she nodded, but he could tell there was something else on her mind. "Is that... all, Penny?"

"I guess so." Her voice quivered a little. She swallowed, pushed a smile, and rose to leave. Before she could flee the room, Ody stopped her.

"Pen... I'm, uh sorry for everything. I'm sorry I made fun of you for you not knowing about electronics earlier. I- I was confused. I didn't understand why everything was the way it was and I still don't but I'm trying to. I shouldn't have taken out my irritation on you."

"It's okay. I'm fine." There were the dreaded words, the famous four words that rarely meant what they suggested.

As she closed the door behind her, Ody listened to her footsteps fade down the hall. He was confused. Her nighttime visit made no sense.

***

The morning sun woke Ody as he lay on the floor. The wooden boards were hard underneath his back, but the stiffness in his back was nothing compared to the peculiar tension in the air. The air was thick and hot like a breath and it hung heavily over Ody's head as he climbed off the ground.

Folding the sleeping bag up, he carried it past his sister's bedroom and down the steps. He placed it by the door and looked around. The house was quiet despite the sun's high position in the sky. He could see Mae on the floor a few feet away from the door and Eric in the kitchen. Both were still asleep.

He yawned and grabbed a bottle of water. Ody took a sip of his drink, then he headed up the creaking stairs to check on Penny.

With each step he placed a foot on, the weight in his stomach felt heavier and heavier. After taking a single step, he paused. For some reason, Ody remembered when his family did science projects on the front porch.

The next step brought on his memory of hugging his father and Penny goodbye when he moved away from them. He had started to cry but his father had smiled down at him and Penny had handed him an adorably sweet note that told him all the things the child would never dare to say to his face.

The third step creaked as he placed his weight on it. The memory of Penny helping him decode that first note a short week ago, made him smile.

And then the next step, the memory of Penny climbing the tree to see if the Post Sunday lab was empty. And then the next, Penny screaming at the people to let him go so he could be free. And then the next, and then the next until his feet reached the top of the staircase and the feeling in his stomach became more intense than ever.