NOVEL NEXT Chapter 21 - Priorities
No matter what time one goes to bed, if you have kids and work, you still need to get up at the same time every day. It was too early by the time I got up, even Beth thought so. Just as she hit snooze on her own clock, her phone calls started rolling in. She coughed and cleared her throat from the night of snoring before answering.
"Beth here, fill me in on what happened? Have they shut it down? I was worried when the alert went out."
Her deep brown eyes darted to me for a second. "No, there were no side effects that I know of. Everything is functioning. I can be there in soon to look at the data. Any other cases since? Good. Fill me in when I get there. Give me forty minutes."
She ended the call and rubbed her face and twisted a lock of hair, thinking for a second. She had naturally straight hair, but that one curl existed because of her anxiety and thinking. It was only six in the morning and the day was already crashing down for her. The little breather we had last night seemed like nothing again.
"Can I help you with anything?" I caressed her shoulder.
The twisting of her hair stopped so she could squeeze my fingers briefly before standing up. "Keep doing what you always do. You're doing great keeping the kids safe. But if you could get the house a little cleaned up, it would make it feel a bit more homely."
"Do you want to talk about work?" I wanted to help ease her tension now. The dishes and bathroom sink would take time.
"Just… Just check for any updates before logging into Seconds-Over okay? Do some dishes while it patches. Laundry too." Beth walked away at that, but paused at her dresser. "You're all right with gaming and everything?"
Her praise was short-lived with her concern for my addiction again. I gave her the most cheerful response to prove it. "Yeah, the kids are having fun. We've been playing together. Last night was a one off, I'm fine. Go before traffic makes it later."
The game's updates were pretty quick, but I would make sure all the systems were up to date to avoid what happened a few days ago. I couldn't say thanks as she was in the bathroom getting ready for the day. I forced myself out of bed. The aches of sleeping on my right demanded to be stretched.
"Mom!" Tristan came running down the hall.
I jumped up and stretched my arms out, something popping from moving too fast.
"Hold it. Hold it. Ow." I shook my wrist. "Mom needs time to get ready. But I know she'll be happy to see you - especially if you get dressed. Use the kitchen sink to brush your teeth! Elaine, wake up so we can get you to school!"
My wrist still felt tingly as I looked around for my work clothes. There were no clean shirts in my drawer. The closet held a trove of clean clothes that were not comfortable for work from home life. But at least the button up collar shirt was clean. My goal today was to tell the kids sorry, once Beth left.
With the family gang chattering away in the kitchen enjoying their breakfast, and fighting for space around one of two sinks in the house, it was only a matter of time before something ruined the balanced peace.
"I miss you kids. Once everything settles, let's go on a trip, far away." Beth declared.
"Like the mountains?" Elaine perked up at the mention of getting away.
"Or a beach. Just something without my blasted work phone." Her phone pinged again, and she was in the middle of eating banana bread toast. "Ugh, I need to go. Best of luck and love you all."
She kissed each kid before rushing out the door one last time.
Getting the kids to school was a breeze. Now was the best chance for me to talk and take a step into fixing my personal problem.
"Elaine, could you take your headphones out?" I called to her.
Her eyes flickered, saying she heard me. But she didn't listen to my request.
Fine. I could take care of the youngest first. "Tristan, I want to say, I think it's cool what you're doing so far in the game. That whole hut you built for, umm.."
"Potions!" He perked up. "I can give you more to try."
I deserved to chug each one of those chunky odd unique flavored potions after what I did to him. "I look forward to the adventure. You're having fun with it?"
"Yup, it's safe."
"Good. Keep enjoying it," I said. Clearing my throat, I spoke louder. "Elaine, I'm sorry! I shouldn't pick out the class you want to play. As you said, it's your game too."
Elaine didn't react or reply. I really screwed up the game for her and our relationship.
As we got to her school, she opened the door and ran up to my window. I opened it up for her to say, "Okay," before waving and walking off to her school.
That two syllable word meant a lot to me. She heard what I said, and I needed to keep trying, not just say things to my kids, but act on it. The guilt sitting my stomach got a bit lighter.
With both kids at school and me alone at home, I had four choices on how to tackle my lunch break.
[ ] Clean the kitchen.
Stolen story; please report.
[ ]Research the bathroom sink issues.
[ ]Play a bit of Seconds-Over and research for answers.
[ ] Do the laundry.
With only a forty-minute lunch break, this was a quest with a lot of false options to distract me from the big prize. I had to do two chores to keep my wife's sanity. Even if she was rarely home to see the house. Taking care of my sanity would be more beneficial, but the stress of the sink would start weighing on my mind and every time the kids used our bathroom instead of theirs.
The correct choice for my lunch break was to look into how to fix the plumbing.
It was a sinking situation. I knew nothing about how the water pipes worked. Two lines of water went in, one line of water went out. Many to one relationship. Got it. Research talked about pressure and gizmos and all these tools on how to fix it. It was water and pipes. How hard could it be? I could run to the store tomorrow over my lunch.
To play it safe, I messaged Uncle Rick about what he knew about this wet problem.
There was a message from Beth saying to update my capsule system. Before I could act on that, I got called into a random work meeting.
The work day went on and I looked at my stream to see I had a spike in followers and people asking for a schedule update on when I'd be back online. Excited, I told them about the gaming hours I do. Only two more hours until I could dive back into Seconds-Over. People had theories on how I triggered the Root and Seeds of the Problem quest, but others disputed it, saying they had done similar things. A couple of copy cats burned down some forests near other cities on other continents. All the resulting failed quests lead to a few guilds hunting down the arsonists. The public consensus was do not start forest fires, with the whole logo of the bear in a green hat filling the forums.
A tiny spark of good news occurred when I saw someone talk about how the ent was a common guardian for a few spirits, and sometimes the gods of their shrine. A few people echoed this thought, but did not give up any details. The secretive and lack of expanding made me wonder if I should go to the temples and look for further answers. I wish there had been more hints as to which god was associated with her shrine.
The rest of the workday dragged in the fact it prevented me from getting anything done on my list. When I got up to put my plate away, I learned I failed to run the dishwasher last night. All the forks and knives tossed in a way to hurt an unsuspecting hand that reached in. With extra dishwasher soap sprinkled in as good luck to the battle of enduring food stains, I left to go get the kids at school.
With the entire gang in the car, and chatting away peacefully, it seemed luck was on my side that the kids were talking again. Instead of interrupting them, I listened on in, hoping for any pieces of news.
Tristan learned to use his armpit to make farts.
Elaine could make louder ones.
They almost died laughing with my pitiful 'pffft' sounding one.
"Oh gosh! That was a real one!" Elaine gagged in the seat behind me.
"No, it wasn't." I glanced at her in the mirror.
"Open the windows fast!" She ordered.
Tristan pushed down on the window button, trying to gasp for fresh air - even though the air in the car was completely fine.
It was great to be laughing again in the car. As soon as we got home, I realized I forgot to bring the pre-packed dinner food with me. Day two of the schedule and I already messed up. "I'm going to get the food heated. Elaine, do your homework and Tristan, can you let Ghost out?"
I didn't want a repeat of the other day, waiting five minutes for the system to update. So for each of the virtual capsules, I updated them one by one, surprised by the unusual size of the patch. I wanted to ask Beth what it was about, but legally, she could not tell me. She rarely ever talked about Seconds-Over or her job. As a precaution, I started up her own virtual pod. It had that annoying system update from earlier in the week.
The microwave summoned my stomach as I dashed back to the kitchen to serve food for everyone, including chasing Ghost off the kitchen chair. With the work day done, the real fun could begin.
I called for Elaine and Tristan's attention. "Kids, today we are going to visit the church and get to know some gods."
"Uh, like what Grandma goes to? Is there a holiday coming up?" Elaine poked at her food.
Tristan inhaled the fried garbanzo beans, not realizing how much green parsley he was eating. "Do we get candy?"
"What no. I'm talking about Seconds-Over," I clarified. "Elaine needs to see the dead, and I need questions answered."
Elaine let out a whistle. "Sounds like a serious spiritual journey."
"You think so?" I replied with sarcasm back.
She smirked and continued on. "Think we'll see angels? Shamans? Seers? Oooh, could I become one?"
She was on her tablet typing things in. I bit my tongue for a moment to prevent saying no, it was her choice, and I focused on the joy she had right now. That was the real prize. After a moment I said, "We need to find a front fighter so I can attack from the back."
Elaine countered. "You could be the front fighter. Why can't I finish the legendary quest?"
The thought never hit me.
Before I could reply, Tristan perked up. "I want the quest! It be cool to go hee-yeah!" He aggressively stabbed his fork at his food and it smashed the beans and sent them across the table. "And win the fight with a single hit."
Tristan unlocking the class would be the least ideal out of us all. I pondered a way to tell him this nicely.
Elaine did not hesitate. "Fighting means leaving your safe place at the guildhall."
The younger brother sat before his emissary, challenged, ready to not back down. With beans loaded up, he yanked the head of the fork back and flung the bean cannon at his sister.
War broke out.
The eldest would not let shame come to her and her ruined clothes. Her armory, The Plate, was untouched and waiting for this moment. Food flew across the table. Causalities of the common folk occurred as food hit me. Elaine's demands washed out Tristan's orders and blocked my demands that they stop.
The only one who ever benefited from family food wars was Ghost.
It's amazing how one minute of war can cause so much disaster. Again, I wished for the cleaning fairy from the game. The battle ended once I took their armories away from them.
In a stern voice, I said. "The two of you will stop and clean this mess up now. Ghost, leave it." I sounded like my old football coach. "Now!"
No human moved. Ghost barely stopped and continued to vacuum up faster than I could've. I grabbed his collar and forced him away from the food and pointed to the dust pain. "Elaine, clean it now."
She finally obeyed and swept the floor. Tristan picked up the pieces off the table. I fed Ghost his dog food, and after I cleaned up the mess, I breathed a sigh of relief. The dishwasher finished earlier, but there was a growing pile waiting its turn and the kids' toothbrushes were now set next to the washcloth. I needed to clean soon.
The day was getting long, and we had a deadline of a little over eight days to finish my quest.
With a deep breath, I calmly talked to the two now that the kitchen was no longer a food mess. "Tensions are high. Why don't we go hop in the game and work it out? We can talk it out, fight some mobs, confess in a temple. Whatever floats your boat."
"Floats your boat?" Tristan repeated.
"Means whatever helps you get along." I tried to explain briefly. It was close enough to the truth. "Come on, let's get going. "
The bickering didn't stop once we got in the game.
Triangle launched a Sticky Nicky bomb at Naiad. Before the threats became more deadly, I grabbed them both by their cloaks and had them face the opposite ways. Naiad wiggled, but because of the sticky bomb, she was stuck in my hand even if I wanted to let her go. Days two of The Plan and we were going to be late because of cleanup duty.
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[Root and Seeds of the Problem
Time Remaining: 8 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes]
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