Quicksilver - Jamilton -

Chapter 9: The vase

"Hey, Friends, lads. How ya doin'?"

"Stop it, dad."

"Aww, Thom' you're no fun, can't you let your good-old father do jokes?"

He says while me, Hamilton, and Angelica enter his car.

"No. You're em-ba-rass-ing." My partners laugh in the back at my comment.

"You should thank your friends for putting up with you. I barely can and I'm your dad!" He says in a jocky tone.

"It's because you're my dad you can't." I fake rolling my eyes. Since I woke up this morning, I don't know why, but I'm in an excellent mood. Today we're finishing our project at my place. I asked my father to pick us up from school, I didn't felt like taking the bus or subway. 

we arrive at home. 

"Mom! Nana, I'm here!"

"They're not here, it's just me and you guys."

"Mom's not here?"

"She's out of town for...business reason. Well, you can take the living room, I'll be in the office if you need me."

I go to my room to take my laptop. A loud sound makes its way to my ear. I run downstairs as if I just saw a ghost to see what's happening.

What I see is quite the spectacle; Hamilton on the floor with a vase completely destroy and papers next to him. I blink multiple times and make a sigh of confusion.

"I left for five seconds and you already destroyed something." Hamilton seems scared to see me, then he remembers who he is, and his need to debate everything re-surface.

"Hey, you make it sound like this was bound to happen."

"Wasn't it, though?"

"No it wasn't, it was pure coincidence!"

"OK, then how did it happen?"

"Well... I was taking my paper out of my bag but one was stuck between books, I was too lazy to take them out, so I just keep trying to pull on the paper. While trying, I stepped back a little. I didn't realize there was already paper there so I slipped backward and... the vase happens to be behind me." Angelica helps him up while I take a better look at the ceramic that was all over the floor. Wait I recognize that thing, that's... Oh, no. I sit down on the couch with my head in my hands.

"You okay, Jefferson?"

"No, I'm a dead man! This thing was my mother's birthday gift from dad!"

They look at each other then looked at me.

"What!?" they speak at the same time. Hamilton paces around.

"What are we going to do!" 

"Quiet down, we don't want Mr. Jefferson to come here, no?"

"Yeah, there's close to no chance he notices anything. When my father's working, he's on another planet, I'm telling you."

We take a moment to think. What are we going to do? We could try to repair it with...glue? Maybe, I don't know I'm not good with handy stuff.

"Can your mother live without it?" 

"Hamilton, if my mother or father knows that I broke that thing, I'm going to be punished again! I won't be able to see James and I really want to see James."

His expression changes, he seems more...sad? Like there is a battle in his conscience. I feel like I said something wrong. 

"You didn't break it, Jefferson. I did. And... I could repay you. I don't have the money right now, but I'll find it, it's fine."

"You think my parent want money from my friends?" Angelica's head shot up and a big smile appears on her face. The kind of smile you make when your friend's got a crush, you know the "Ohhh I'm so going to tease you about this." smile. Yeah, I prefer seeing someone cry than seeing that's devilish smile.

"Wait? Did you just call us friends?! Jefferson, you think of us as friends!"

"No, I didn't!"

"Yes, you did! So, does that means we can call you Thomas? Or better, Tommy, Tom-Tom, Thomas the train!"

"Absolutely not! No way! You know, I'm a difficult man, and you do not fit the criteria."

"Can we put our attention on what's really important?"

"Ok fine, but this talk is not finished."

I mock her, and she gives me a glare, so I stop.

"Okay, I know how to fix this. Thomas-"

"Jefferson."

"Thomas, do you have epoxy?"

"What's that?"

"Okay so no. Do you have work gloves?"

"Are stove gloves okay?"

She just looks at me.

"Okay, you have nothing. We need to go to the store." 

"Why?" Hamilton asks while he takes his paper from the floor.

"Well, I broke more than one vase in my life.  My father would bring them to professionals but I think I have an idea of how they do it"

"Okay, well you're the boss, but you better be right."

"No worries, I'm always right. Before we leave, we need to hide the fragment and write a note to your father saying that we're gone, just in case."

I hide the fragment next to the couch while Hamilton writes the post-it.

"So, where's the closest art store?"

"Can't we just go to the convenient store?"

"No, it's either that or Walmart."

"Oh, let's go to Walmart!"

"But, it's so far from here!"

"We can take the subway."

"Noo, I don't feel like taking the subway."

"It's either that or we walk."

I sigh. I really don't feel like going on this disgusting way of transportation, but I don't have a choice, do I?

You know what's the funny thing about Walmart? You go in there looking for something specific but end up with thousands of other things you absolutely need. We walk through the ills like kids in a carnival. Discovering a funny thing about every second. The employees don't care, I'm sure they see weird people every day. I make puns, because of my father I got a lot of them. Hamilton does silly things, like trying to ride on our cart. Angelica tries to calm us down, but she is laughing so hard herself, it isn't convincing at all. We find most of the things we need. Walking out of there, I feel as if I just drank alcohol. Like, I don't understand why I did most of the things I did, just that it was hilarious.

We get home silently and we start to work. Well, mostly Angelica but we did try to help. I don't know how she did it but in the end, it looks okay. She says to let it dry, so we just put it where it was supposed to be, not to touch it ever again. We are now all standing in front of it with a proud face.

"I just realize something." Hamilton says.

"What?"

"We need to do our project!"

All of a sudden we all take our things and get to work. Hamilton doesn't have a laptop, so he just works the old way. 

"Huh, you kids were working all this time! Don't you need a break, I could make you something?"

"NO, dad it's fine. We need to work."

"If you say so."