Chapter 2.

“Parkeerrrr!”

I glanced up in the rearview mirror and saw my sister Shelly looking longingly out the window of the car. “What is it Shells?” I asked in an annoyed tone.

“Can we go to McDonalds?”

I sighed and turned my attention back to the road. “No.”

“Pleaseeeeee”

“no”

“But Parker-” She started saying before I cut her off.

“If you want McDonalds so bad, then maybe you should start walking home from school… huh?” I said. That shut her up pretty quickly. We lived about 10 minutes away from Shelly’s middle school by car… That’s almost an hour-long walk. The same walk that I had to do every day when I was Shelly’s age. “And besides, we have to pick up Neil & Emily from Daycare.” I could hear Shelly’s defeated sigh.

Neil & Emily are my step- siblings. My mom got knocked up a few years ago by “some guy she met in the club” –her words; needless to say she never saw this guy again. The kids are only four years old & they are fraternal twins. Don’t let their adorable faces fool you; Neil & Em are always up to something.

I turned into the parking lot of “Wee-Watch” and cut the engine of my ancient Oldsmobile. “Wait here” I instructed Shelly as I opened the car door.

“Can you leave the radio on?” Shelly asked. I sighed and shoved the key back in the ignition, turning it just slightly to the right. The radio quickly came back on, and the car was soon filled with the deafening bass of a song I’ve never heard. Shelly however seemed quite content, singing along and bopping her head.

I slammed the car door closed, and made my way inside the daycare center. The awful sounds of children shrieking mixed with Barney music filled my ears as soon as I stepped through the entrance. “Oh Parker, thank goodness you are here!” Said Ms. Adams, the daycare coordinator. “Emily just told all of the kids that there was no Santa, and now everyone is crying… and Neil keeps kicking Patrick & Andy for no reason… Its craziness”

“Oh wow, I’m so sorry!” I said, not exactly surprised by any of this. “Let me get them out of here.” I quickly scanned the colorful room, and spotted Emily & Neil throwing Lego at other kids. I made a beeline towards them, but of course they spotted me first. Ten minutes, and one big chase through the ball pit later, I had them rounded up and ready to go. “Thanks again” I said to Ms. Adams. I grabbed Em and Neil by their collars, and we walked out to the car.

I strapped them in their car seats and headed towards the last stop; home. The four of us and my Mom live in a large community, mostly filled with well-off families in comfy subdivision housing with white picket fences. Our living arrangement however is a little bit different. We reside in the older part of town… the section that was around long before the big-time developers came and “beautified”. Our house still has the same tacky 70’s décor as when we bought it, and dark wooden half paneling in every room. The musky floors creek, and the faded wallpaper is peeling off, but it’s the only home I know.

Minutes later we pulled into the narrow pavement driveway of the house. I grabbed my backpack from the trunk and we all headed inside. “Mom?” I yelled from the foyer.

“Shhhh!” was her response. It came from the den, so I plopped my bag in front of the door and followed the muted sound of her phone voice. “Yes, all that for one low monthly rate” she said, over politeness ringing through every word. Only through my trained ears could I make out the emptiness behind it all. “Oh, well then thank you for your time.” She said with a defeated sigh. She hung up the phone and collapsed onto the couch. “Parker?” she asked, turning her head to face me.

“Yeah Mom?”

“I’ll be working tonight, so I’ll need you to make dinner again honey. And if you could just clean up a bit that would be a big help too.” She said with that pleadingly hopeless look in her tired light brown eyes.

“No problem” I assured her.

“Thanks kid… You know, I’d be dead if I didn’t have you around” a halfhearted smile began creeping upon her once beautiful face.

“I know.” And with that I walked down the main hall to my room. I hopped onto the bed and listened to the familiar sounds of the creaky springs of the mattress. I then kicked off my sneakers and laid my head on my favourite lumpy pillow. Through the walls I could still make out the soprano pitch of my mother’s voice on the phone. She works part time as a telemarketer for various businesses. She gets paid commission, so it doesn’t have the best salary; most of our money comes from her singing gigs. She does the phone thing by day, working from home, and a few nights a week, a local bar or whatever will hire her to perform. It wasn’t always this way… she used to have a somewhat steady job as a hotel lounge act, but when she got pregnant with the twins, everything changed.

As money became a scarcity, my Mom just kind of gave up on us… and being the oldest daughter, a lot of the responsibilities were then thrust upon me. I needed to grow up really fast during those times five years ago, and I’ve continued to carry someone else’s burden ever since.

There was a swift knock on my door. I flipped over to lay on my stomach and turned my head to the other side to face the door. “Come in!” I yelled.

My mom’s head popped through the frame, the phone still clutched in one hand, her other palm covering the receiver. “Parker, I’m really going to need your help this weekend with the kids. I just booked this really good gig at Stan’s Bar & Grill… It’s a few hours out of town, so I figured I could just get a motel there. I’ll just need you to take care of everything around here.” She said offhandedly. “oh and if you could pay the phone bill for me, that would be a load off my mind.” None of this was a question, so much as an order, but still she waited for my response.

One look at her sunken in face, and I replied with a routine “No problem… I’ll handle it”. My mom nodded once and turned to leave the room. She and I both knew that I could handle it… much better than she ever could.