by Seloni
Lillian opened the porch to the front yard, as she saw her father on the oak tree, shouting commands to her little sister, who rummaged through a tool box on the lawn. ”This one?!”, Ruby screeched. ”No sweetheart, this is a screwdriver..I need the spanner!” he called. She presented another tool. ”No..”. After some more rummaging, she lifted a metal item. “There you go!” he shouted in approval. Enthusiastically, she climbed up the latter. ”Don’t slip. Watch out for your steps…” Her father reached out and steadied her. ”What are you guys hacking?” Lillian asked, amused. Both turned to her and spoke in unison, “Building a tree house.” That explained all the wooden panels lying around. Since last summer, those two had this thirst to build or invent the craziest things. Over the months, Ruby and Matteo turned out to be a well-rehearsed team. They had installed a water pipeline out of old glass containers spread over the whole backyard, in order to maintain the flowers and vegetables. Several timers sent a signal during the day, to water the ground with contained rain water. At Christmas, they built a snow machine out of their old wind blower, water and a ton of SAP-Powder, making their compound seem like a little winter wonderland, at 40 degrees outside. Proved to be a total hit for the whole neighbourhood. Ruby had yet to convince their father to consider a railway through the backyard as a future project. ”How was your day?” He shouted down to Lillian while he was hammering down another panel into the tree. ”Good.” Except the encounter with Alistair, of course. Her mind had been going through it on loop the whole way back home. The nasty things they had called each other, until Logan and Othis had to separate them because they had outdone them in bickering at least by volume. Lillian laughed miserably. Like nothing had changed. While the boys had gone to meet with all of their other friends to toast on Alistair’s return, Lillian stepped home with Noah Kahan consuming her from ears to heart. ”I think I made it into the newspaper.” She beamed. ”Was positive you’d make it. You’re a legend!” Her dad glanced out proudly at her through a heavily overgrown branch. Rory made a ‘whoop!’ sound. She threw a heart sign before leaving them on their own.
She headed straight up to Finn’s room. Knocked twice, and stepped inside when no one opened. He was lying down on his bed, seemingly asleep. She knew he was pretending due to his eyes flickering. ”It’s me.”, she said. He sighed and lifted, leaning on his elbows. ”Thought Mum would come in for the thirtieth time today.” Finn was known for his rough scratchy voice and his overall lanky build. He grabbed his hazardous ginger curls and for a few seconds stared silently out the locked window. One beam of light broke through his dusty room. Old cups and plates were stacked on his table, Lillian removed a pile of laundry to sit on his swivel chair. She watched him. ”How are you?”, For the first time his eyes met with Lillian’s. And whatever she saw, though unable to decipher what exactly, she didn’t like. His head moved up, eyes rapidly skimming the ceiling, as if he was looking for the answer in the air. Not one was found, so instead he limped to launch his desktop. ”Have you had a bad dream again?” He shook his head. ”That’s good news.”, she said. She looked over her brother’s shoulder and watched him clicking through an online forum. ”What’s that?”, he flinched, irritated. “Please go”, he whispered. ”Why I-…” ”Go. And close the door on your way out.”
© Seloni 2024-08-27