On Thursday, feeling much better now that eir bout with mono had passed, Espe burst into Sam’s room without knocking. “Hey, I wanted to tell you something.”
“You could knock, you know,” Sam roused, glancing at her.
“Sorry, guess I’m just excited.” And still damp from where Olivia had splashed em during her bath, but ey didn’t care.
Realizing his sibling wasn’t going to away and let him hide out listening to classical music in peace, sam asked, “What do you want?”
“i’ve decided to graduate early. Not really much point in going back just for three days when I already missed school thanks to being sick. My grades are still good enough.”
“Oh, that’s great. But don’t you want to have a graduation ceremony?”
Espe shook eir head. “Not really. I feel like I need to do this now. You could too: your grades are almost as good as mine.”
“Only because you’re older, and a geek,” Sam teased. “Did you ever decide what job you wanted.”
“Oh, tech guru, definitely.”
“I figured. Are you graduating today then?”
“No, I thought I’d wait until tomorrow and get my final exam scores.”
“Smart. Know if anyone’s using the laptop? Mine still hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Nope, everyone’s in the living room.”
“Good. I just thought of something I need to do.”
Making it across the hall without anyone lookign at him and adding to his embarrassment, Sam booted up the family’s laptop. Luckily there wwas a signal this evening, and he was quickly able to check his grades. Straight As! Now that Espe had planted the idea in his head, Sam was ready to apply for early graduation. There wasn’t any reason not to, and the sooner he graduated, the sooner he could start studying at Britechester, becoming the third generation of Henriqueses to attend. But like Espe, Sam decided to start the process after Friday’s exams, hoping that would give him an edge.
After dinner, Sam was back at the laptop applying for scholarships, amazed at how many he qualified for. Henford resident, of course, Food and Cooking, Fish and Gardening… and surprisingly, E-sports though Sam considered it more a hobby than anything he wanted to focus on.
Meanwhile, Espe wandered back into the dining room fully intending to share eir news only to find Tevo in the middle of telling astory about Jeb. That was the trouble with such a large family: you often had to wait your turn for attention. Iin this case, Espe didn’t mind and settled in to listen, patiently waiting eir turn and enjoy some beef yakisoba.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that Tevo was still feeling sad about the death of one of his fathers and still had the funeral to get through because the earliest possible time was Saturday afternoon, he was also starting to feel a little burned out. He was blaming the double stress for the fact that his life suddenly seemed unsatisfactory. He wasn’t even sure exactly what was wrong excep tthat every day seemed to be blurring into the next with no real change and time seemed to be passing him by. Why now, didn’t he already have enough on his plate? Why couldn’t he have had a midlife crisies right after his fortieth birthday instead of nearly five years later? Wouldn’t that have made more sense?
Needing to move, Tevo swung his legs out of bed, listening for the sounds of his children getting ready for school.
Later, after seeing their older children off to school and feeding Olivia, Tevo went out to the chicken coop with Carrie. He noticed that she didn’t seem as enthusiastic as usual, but he thought it was because their old rooster, Nox, was probably going to die soon. A cold wind blew through the bare branches and ruffled his hair, sneaking chilly fingers down the back of his coat. At least it wsn’t rianing for a change.
“Two eggs today. I wonder if this one is another rooster,” Carrie mused, putting one back to incubate.
“Guess we’ll have to see. Be nice to hve a son of Nox’s instead of needing to buy a new rooster for our two hens.”
“It will. What do you think of sending Nox to the butcher?”
Tevo paused only briefly in his task of cleaning out the coop, knowing the reality of farm life. “I think it’s a good idea. We haven’t eaten chicken in a while.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
Back inside, where it was warm and cozy, Tevo tuned the stereo to his favorite station and began to dance, the movement lifting his spirits and clearing the fog fro his brain. He was so glad he’d taken the day off: he needed it.
When Carrie came back inside with Olivia, who had followed them out, she saw what Tevo was doing and brought their youngest over. “Come on, Olivia, look what Daddy’s doing! Let’s dance!”
“I like dance!” Olivia giggled, wriggling her body in in an attempt to copy her parents.
When he’d had enough of dancing, Tevo knelt to love on Patches, noticing his coat seemed to have faded a bit, the gray and white all but obliterating the brown. “How are you doing, boy? Feeling your age yet?”
“Woof!”
Finding the dog’s brush, Tevo began brushing Patches’ fur. Time really did fly; it seemed lie konly yesterday Patches had been a tiny puppy. And there were still things Tevo wanted to do with his life before he became an elder himself. Like take his wife on a vacation just for the two of them ,the way he remembered his parents doing. How was it they’d never found time to do that before? Tevo vowed to make the time. Espe, Sam and Tiana were old enough to watch their younger siblings.
As Carrie got started preparing a dinner of fish tacos in anticipation ofthe return of six hungry children, a sense of ennui suddenly came over her. She loved her children, her garden and the chickens, but all of a sudden, her life seemed void of excitement. She needed something to shake things up, she just wasn’t quite sure what. A trip to someplace new, maybe? A romantic getaway?
Unaware that his wife’s thoughts swere running in parallel to his own, Tevo sat down on the floor with Oliva, who insisted on wearing her shiny red rainboots indoors, and started teaching her letters. She really was a smart child, but then all seven of his children were. Yes, he counted Espe in that number though eir smarts more likely came from Carrie and eir biological father.
As soon as ey got home from school, Espe gave up eir chance at being valedictorian by officially graduating early. It felt good to not have to worry about school anymore. Now ey just had to wait for eir birthday before ey could start working as a tech guru.
In his room, Sam set up his brand new, cheap laptop and quickly applied to graduate early. Once that was done, he began the process of applying to Britechester.
“Hey, man, what are you doing?” his cousin Marc asked, wandering into his room.
“Applying to Britechester. Figure if I get it all done now, I can start in a few days. Plus, it keeps my mind off Papa’s funeral.”
“So you really did it? You graduated early?” Marc asked.
“Yep.” Sam kept typing.
“But didn’t you want to be valedictorian?”
“Not if it was a choice between me and Espe. Now someone else can be. Besides, I’ll probably get another chance at it at Britechester.”
“I guess that would be even cooler than being High School Valedictorian,” Marc conceded.
Donning his raincoat in case it started raining again, Sam headed out to the garden and stood for a moment breathing in the semlls of damp earth and growing things. Somewhere, birds twittered in a tree. He was almost tempted to just study from home so he wouldn’t have to leav this place, but he saw this as his chance to get away and see more of the world for a few years. He would have a lifetime to enjoy living on the farm. Besides, how could he study with five younger siblings underfoot, thundering up and down the stairs, yelling in excitement or anger, and bursting into his room atl hours?
“So, did you do it?” Espe asked.
“I did. You?”
“Same. I’m already working on my resume.”
“You’re not going to University?”
Espe shook eir heaad. “No, I’m done with school. Maybe I’ll go later, but not now.”
Sam could undestand that, but he wanted to just get it done so he could focus on the farm and starting a famiyl of his own with Aylin. Though he wasn’t sure he could see her being happy on the farm full time. As he had every time that worry reared its ugly head, Sam pushed it away and buried his hands in the soothing dirt.
“Are you going to Tristan’s slumber party tonight?” Jonatan Salas asked.
“Oh, I forgot! Yeah, I’m going, just want to finish this first.”
“Great. Hurry up, though, or we’re going to be late.”
“Chill, it’ll be fine.” But Sam did gulp down his dinner a little faster, trying not to make a mess in the process. He sure wasn’t going ot miss one last chance to hang out with his cousins before going off to university.
The evening ended with Carrie helping three of her children to complete a puzzle and feeling a little less bored. But she could still feel the pressure of time marching on and leaving her with th efeeling that she hadn’t accomplished much. Who was she, really, beyond a wife and mother, daughter, sister and aunt? Would she get to find out or was that really all there was to her life?
(2.52) Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (2.54)
Muse Urania's Library 