Morning all and welcome to the start of another week. You know how we had seventy and eighty degree weather a few weeks ago? well this weekend it snowed. Not a lot, but it is very disorienting. I don’t mind snow so much in March. Easter is always the last time of the year i expect snow where I live. I used to blame Easter dresses for that. All of the Easter dresses’ I had as a kid were light material often with florals and designed to welcome the return of warm weather. I, along with all of the other little girls, shivered through Easter services because of it. However this up and down the thermometer is a little disconcerting. However we will let that go and hope the tulips can survive until Wednesday morning when the weather is supposed to warm back up. Leaving them aside, let’s start off with a good morning prompt before warming up with a vat of coffee.
Something is going to happen on Matt’s walk. I don’t know what, but something. Whatever that something is will determine what kind of story this ends up being. At the moment I don’t know yet. But that is okay. I can figure that out at some later point.
Monday, March 20th: He went for a walk.
He went for a walk. He knew if he didn’t get out of the house and get some space then he would say something that couldn’t be unsaid. He slipped out of the back door. The others were still gathered in the living room and the sound of the television was loud. There was a dull roar as someone scored some sort of point.
He wanted to say it was football but in truth it could be just about any sport. Iven the time of year he thought football was the right guess but with the full satellite package at least one game, match, tournament or competition of nearly every sport was available year round. And his step brothers and father weren’t picky about what sport they watched. It seemed that all that was needed was the sort of competition they could yell at and cheer on and then snacks were gathered and their uncles and cousins called.
‘After all what is the point of having the full, ultimate package if you can’t have everyone over for the big game,” he repeated. Matt sighed. He understood the idea of gathering for the big game even if he wasn’t into sports. He was just growing weary of every game being treated like the big one. It was Saturday and as the afternoon waned once again everyone gathers in the living room. The fact that they also gathered the previous Saturday, and Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was irrelevant.
This was the big game and interruptions weren’t tolerated. The fact that he had an exam to study for didn’t matter. He was told to lighten up as it was after all Saturday and in theory he had all weekend to prepare. As he knew that tomorrow around noon all those currently in the house would return for the next big game it was no longer an argument he wanted to hear.
‘And when I yell about it tomorrow I will be told I shouldn’t have left my studying until the last minute anyway.’
Matt snorted and kicked an old soda can lying by the side of the road. It flew off into the darkness with a clattering clank. It had actually gotten worse since Carl, his step-father was home on medical leave. He was injured at work and was given time to heal up and get better. Matt thought it would slow everyone down but now in addition to gathering to get the full use out of the sport’s package, they gathered to encourage Carl.
Matt wondered if he was the only one who noticed the longer Carl was home the more his mother picked up extra shifts. He knew they were solid on money, he asked. His mother thought it was his college savings that he was worried about, but she assured him it was safe and that even with Carl’s injury it was not something to worry about. The money was locked in a trust specifically for him. It came from his father’s side of the family and couldn’t be used for anything else.
Still his mother was out more than she was in. He couldn’t blame her. These days, he was out of the house more than he was home too.
Ten til Midnight 