The Box by Lovelyn Bettison

Author:Lovelyn Bettison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Nebulous Mooch
Published: 2010-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Fourteen

When I awoke, the door to the office where Eve was sleeping was still closed. Koji was up though. The sofa bed had already been put away. I could hear talking in the kitchen. The sweet smell of pancakes filled the air.

The kitchen I remembered from my youth hadn’t been redone yet. The avocado refrigerator and stove, the white Formica counter top, the alternating black and white tile backsplash, the black cat clock that hung on the wall with its tail swinging side to side—its eyes constantly looking back and forth like it was watching a tennis match—were all still there. I bought my mom that clock for her birthday when I was in fifth grade. It was the first time I’d used my money to buy something for someone else. I couldn’t believe it had lasted this long.

Koji stood at the stove flipping pancakes. My parents sat at the kitchen table talking to him. Much to my distress, my father was holding the box. He turned it over and over in his hands, looking at it intently.

“Good morning,” my mom said.

“At least one of them is up for breakfast.” Koji slid a golden-brown pancake out of the pan and onto a plate. Bacon sizzled in a cast iron skillet.

“What is this?” My dad held the box up in one hand.

“Just a favor for a friend,” I responded quickly. I had no intention of telling them anything about it.

“What kind of favor?” my dad asked.

Koji set a plate of pancakes on the table. “Sorry,” he whispered as he passed.

My mom stood up to take the bacon out of the pan. She put it on a plate that she had covered with paper towels. “Indy, I really thought you had more sense than that.”

“I…” I couldn’t think of an excuse.

“It’s time to eat.” She picked up the plate and set it on the table.

I was almost thirty years old and, embarrassingly, still felt like I had to answer to my parents. I sat down at the table, my mind spinning, trying think of a good slant to put on the story.

“Should I wake Eve?” Koji asked.

“No, let her sleep. You had a long trip. I’ll fix something for her when she gets up,” my mom said.

My father set the box down and eyed me suspiciously. “So what kind of favor?”

Koji was serving himself pancakes. I tried to make eye contact with him, but he wouldn’t look at me. I didn’t know what else to do, so I decided to come clean. I hated all of this weird lying I seemed to have been doing ever since this trip started. It was getting exhausting. Tom had never told me that any of this was a secret, so why was I trying to keep it one? My parents knew I needed a job, and, though unconventional, this was a job. It was the one I had right now at least.

“There’s this guy that lives in my building,” I began. “We’re kind of friends.

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