The Captain's Harvest by T.J. Land

Author:T.J. Land
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, lgbt, bisexual, science fiction, menage, polyamory, trans, asexual, age gap
Publisher: NineStar Press

Chapter 5

Yeah, Rick remembered this.

“Baby, we’re taking the picture. Can’t you smile?”

“Sorry, Mom,” he said, trying to smile.

“Oh, that’s no good. C’mon. Get some life in it. This is a happy day, sweetheart. Smile with your eyes.”

“Jesus, hurry up,” hissed Gabriel through his grin, frozen in place like the rest of them with his arms around Rick and Dad’s shoulders, while Gran held the chess trophy up in front of them, partly obscuring Rick’s face. When Rick inched to the left so that more of his inadequate smile was hidden behind it, his mom took the picture.

“I’m so proud of you, baby,” Mom said to his brother, hugging him while his sister patted Gabe on the back.

“Family of champions,” said Rick’s uncle, the way he always did. “Who wants more jelly?”

Rick knew that if he’d actually had the chance to meet his family again in real life, he’d have cried and told all of them how much he loved them. But this wasn’t his family; this was a shitty recreation of a shitty, shitty time in his life that he’d really sooner have forgot.

Even knowing that, he hated how much of an asshole he was being. This was Gabriel’s birthday and the celebration in honour of his brother’s latest chess championship. Rick should have been happy for him. Just like he should have been happy the week before this, when his sister had announced her scholarship. Just like he should have been happy the week before that, when his oldest brother had shown them all his engagement ring. What sort of gross, awful person wasn’t happy when the people they loved were happy? What sort of person sat there scowling all through a nice family dinner his mom had spent the whole day cooking, and couldn’t even bring himself to shake his brother’s hand?

The sort of person whose first girlfriend dumped them last month and who isn’t coping at all, Rick told himself. C’mon, knock it off. This self-pitying horseshit isn’t fixing anything. I need to find the others.

How did this illusion thing work, anyway? Maybe he could simply get up and leave the room.

They probably wouldn’t notice, even if they were really here, he thought, watching his aunts squabble over the last of the jelly while his dad gave Gabriel a new watch. No, I said stop that.

His vision seemed to be a little off somehow, until he realized that he had two eyes again. Pushing back his chair, he started to move to where the nearest door should have been, the one that led into the kitchen. It wasn’t there. Nor was the door leading into the main hallway. And now that he looked around, all the windows were gone too. Goddammit. What now…

“Shit, this place is nice,” said Zachery, appearing from out of nowhere. “How come you never said you were rich, you brat?”

Thomas popped in on his left, stepping on their dog Carla’s tail. “Oops, sorry, mutt. Oh my God, is that lime-flavored jelly? I thought I’d never see it again.

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