NOVEL NEXT Chapter 49 - Instant Coffee
"Dad," Elaine said softly as she shook my shoulder.
"No. Ten more minutes," I mumbled and pulled my blanket over head. It failed to hide me on the couch as my feet stuck out.
"But you told me that fifteen minutes ago. It's 8:30 and mom's gone."
"I got the potion for him," the youngest child chirped in. "Dad, I've got a Nap in a Mug for you."
My foggy brain didn't understand the words he said, but it craved whatever he got. My nose had picked up the smell before I spotted the coffee cup in his hand. He used the largest mug in the house, one of my alma mater.
"Your bribery worked, thank you." I took the mug from Tristan and noticed my first challenge of the day.
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[Item Acquired! Mysterious Beige Drink. It smells of coffee, sugar lines the rim. The cup is cooler than your hands. The unknown flavor adventure will surely jolt you awake.]
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"How old is this cup of coffee?" The ceramic wasn't even warm.
"I just made it!" Tristan smiled and pointed to the top. "Elaine pulled out the instant coffee mix while I grabbed milk and sugar to put into it."
"Looks like you got the ratio the way I like it. But uh, did you use the tap water?"
"Yup! Took a while to mix, but the coffee went in finally with the creamer." Tristan explained.
"Right. Thanks." I cut the conversation short and took a big sip to support my son's creativity. At the cost of my taste buds.
I needed to rate Seconds-Over sensory skills for accurate chunky potions. The creamer prevented all the coffee crystals from being dissolved in. I chugged as much as I could before my stomach tightened too much. "Ah thank you." I gasped, coming up for fresh air.
"Oh, if you like it, I can make more." Tristian beamed.
"I'll ask you when I'm ready." I answered truthfully. It was pretty cool he was interested in cooking, but probably needed some real life guidance and experience right now. To also taste test what he makes.
Elaine had a hand over her mouth to hide her snickering. Both kids had a smile. I stood up off the couch, putting the cup on the end table. The flavor and caffeine already worked in kick-starting my brain.
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[You've received a Quest!
Start the day on the right foot
Congrats you fixed your gaming priority issues. Now it's time to carry those gaming lessons over into life. Hint - the flow normally goes the other way.]
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I avoided the cheeky route and put my right foot forward. My tastebuds wanted water to rinse my mouth out. "Let me get ready, and I'll meet you two in the kitchen. How is homework?"
"Oh, do we have to?" Elaine moaned. "We need to plant the seed now."
I gave her a smile. "I know your mom said to do homework and I'm on her team."
"But I brought you coffee… I can get you a breakfast bar too!" Tristan offered. "Pleeeease."
I held my ground against their argument. "Homework while I take care of the house. Let's power up and get it all done. Did you both eat?"
They both nodded and grumbled as they moved to get their school bags. I called to them one more time, "To help me out, mind updating me on what you're learning in school? I could use a refresh on the course."
In the kitchen, I rested my head against the fridge, willing it to magically create a breakfast burrito. I lacked the intelligence to create it and grabbed the easiest breakfast to devour and reviewed my goals for the day. Past me last night had higher wisdom and left a note on the fridge of everything I had to do. My side quests that were a building block into gaining control again.
[Today's To-Do:
- Laundry
- bathroom sink
- Take care of kids]
In a tighter, neater letters, Beth added one additional item: "Send Beth a report of you analyzing your gaming addiction."
It hurt to be called out about my past like that and I felt anger building inside me and building up my excuses. My phone reached to send her a message and write it all out.
I stopped and walked away from the note to prove I controlled my emotions. Beth wanted to help in the way she could, but we had to talk longer than ten minutes at night. It was a Saturday, and she was gone, having her own addiction to work. But I couldn't call her out on it and honestly, my goal right now was to fix my problems and be a better parent to the kids.
Elaine needed help with her agriculture report again. Tristan I gave spelling tests while I folded laundry. The washer already smelled better than it did last night.
Tristan tagged along when it came to the sink. He chirped up. "Oh wrenches, screwdrivers, and metal stuff? I want to help!"
Video game skills sinking into the reality as his small hands messed around with the pipes. His confidence was incredible as he talked.
"This dohicky can be turned like a door handle," he twisted the shut of valve. "Oops!"
I chuckled at the rookie mistake and gave him time to turn the water off while I put the bucket over the loose water handle and had the fountain feed back into the drain. He popped up and down from under the sink, trying to see if it was off while I kept my mouth shut. Once shut off, I dried it up with my freshly laundered towels. Mistakes are the best way to learn, and I have made a lot in my life to know not to get mad.
Tristan came out from under the sink, a serious expression on his face. He used the wrench to fit around the faucet handle, but then it didn't twist correctly and he tried forcing the screw into the combo, but it didn't work. "Dad, we're going to need to upgrade."
"Whatcha recommend, doc? Is the Kooler sink fixable?" I leaned over the counter to look at the sink with him.
"What I always do when something doesn't work. Add dynamite." He turned and looked at me, sticking his tongue out.
Through a laugh, I nudged him out of the bathroom. "I appreciate the advice, but I'll go ask for a second-opinion. If you're done with your homework, go play outside while I get this fixed."
Elaine came down the hallway, a pretzel sticking out of her mouth. "I say explosions are the only way to save that sink. A giant hammer too. Start all over and add some silver accents in."
"Noted. But no explosions. How goes the farming report?" I inquired.
"Taking a break. I finished up the part of draining the swamps for farm fields and the consequences on that."
"Okay. Don't forget, none of us are getting into Seconds-Over until we finish our work. Tristan, can you spell racket?"
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"R-A-C-K-I-T," he called back.
"E-T," Elaine corrected him. "I'll help him out."
"Thanks, I need to run to the store," I told them both. "I was looking up how to fix this last night and learned something. House projects and brand new video games had a lot in common, there are a lot of guides on how to do something, but our sink problem isn't the most popular one so I had to do a deep search for an answer and learned a bunch of useless terms."
"Sounds like a racket," Tristan chimed in.
Elaine sighed. "I'll work on his definitions, too."
"Thanks." I couldn't help but smile at the teamwork going on. How I was leveling up myself.
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[You've gained listening +2. Now you have both ears working for the kids.]
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Just as I finished jotting down the sink's measurements, Uncle Rick called my phone. In our relationship, I was the one who made the phone calls, he never called me first. With everything in my life breaking, I feared that the man who raised me had bad news. Everything happened in threes, broken sink, Beth being mad, and here came the one that would break me.
"Hey, Uncle Rick, what can I help you with?" I forced my voice to sound happier and not worried. I wanted all the good vibes in the world to keep him okay.
"Hm," he grunted. "Beth reached to your mom, and she messaged me. I'm confused about this whole situation of a sink in your game is leaking? Is this some new joke in these online games?"
I breathed a sigh of "That's some telephone madness and a bunch of mothers passing off a parenting job."
"Blaine, don't talk like that. You don't talk to your mom, and your sweet Beth is just concerned and gathering the village around you," Rick lectured.
"I appreciate the check in." My mind started thinking about the week of how I screwed up and lost my temper and how fast I fell. I had to stop trying to prove I was fine, and actually accept the help that was being offered because I was sinking after only a week in the game. "I'd love your help on the bathroom sink, so it actually gets done properly. What's the cost to have you over? Your hourly rate can't be cheap."
"Hm," he grunted again. "You were always stubborn. Meet me at the hardware store."
Rick ended the phone without a goodbye, as we would see each other soon.
I was an adult who still needed help. I wasn't sure if I was being a good role model for my kids in showing that it was fine to ask for help, or it showed how I was unreliable. Before leaving for the store, I rotated the laundry, grabbing the last loose articles that laid around the house. A giant mound of it sat next to the washer by the time I was done. Ghost wandered over and snuggled up in the smelly mess.
"I'll shall remove your throne, piece by piece." I declared as I petted him. Before leaving, I gave him a dog treat from the top shelf in the laundry room.
Beth texted to ask for an update on my list. The easiest answer would be to ignore her until I had a real update to show progress, instead I could only say, "I'm working on it."
My vague answer enraged Beth. She demanded more details. I heard the kids laughing outside and playing pretend. Elaine bantered about how fast the seed was growing and they must prepare for the fight against the tree and its leaf attacks.
"I haven't even gotten on the game yet," I told Ghost on his throne, "and I have a seed to grow before the timer ends on the quest. Yet the only timer I can watch right now is the laundry one."
I snapped a picture of him, the timer on the machine, and declared it the fourth load going in, and sent it to Beth. "Going to the hardware store, hopefully it has this unique bolt nut thingy for the sink."
I let the children know I was leaving and lunch was whatever they could find.
Another message came from Drill Sergent Beth as I got into the parking lot at the hardware, asking if Rick gave me advice… and another update. The location of my phone was on and, knowing Beth, she was tracking the car to see if I was actually going out doing the work with the timing of her text message. She was worried about me when she had her own problems.
She knew what shared the parking lot with the hardware store. The old brick and mortar gaming store was right next door.
She followed me because she had some of the information, but not all, and she wanted to believe in me. Beth wanted to help and support me.
The moment I got into the store, I took a side path to aisle twenty-seven and took a selfie photo next to the screws with the message: "I found where I belong."
Beth declared my humor dead with a thumbs-up emoji. Our relationship was teetering if I didn't shape up and if I didn't talk to her.
An email notification came in about hitting a new achievement on my stream.
"One hundred thousand subscribers?!" I said out loud, to help solidify the truth and confirm it wasn't a scam. The ad money I generated was going to be greater. Thinking about money had me curious if I'd received any new donation tips like last time and their messages.
I quadrupled my subscribers and only had two new donation tips. Only two messages.
[HopHipsFlops55: Thanks for the great content.]
[BlueFins4412: Hey man, thought I give you a head up. The Pantheon has told people to watch your stream and report on your guild. You really angered them, and they are now out head-hunting everyone in your guild. Good luck.]
"Jeez, people take this game to serious." I grumbled and stepped to the side of the aisle so a customer could check out the vanity sink I blocked. "Ah, sorry, excuse me."
Looking at the funds I made from the ad revenue alone yesterday, I pulled in enough to buy that vanity sink with the matching oval mirror. These weren't my fans though. They were scouting out information on how to hurt my kids. That meant Alcender found us in the herbalist shop because of the stream. All that money was dirty and no amount of washing would clean it from me.
It was my problem, though, one that the kids didn't need to know about. I wouldn't turn on the stream any more, I had to keep the kids safe. Once I got rid of The Pantheon Guild, I could turn the stream back on.
Multiple employees of the hardware store walked by me, helping some other lady who wandered into the store. Males never get help at the hardware store, they just assume we know what we are doing.
After I stood in the bathroom faucet area for ten minutes trying to find spare parts and an employee walked by without saying a word, I grumbled in annoyance.
"You know, if you ask for help instead of grumbling, you might actually get some." A familiar voice said to me. Uncle Rick, in his jeans, vintage sports jersey and vest, walked over to me with the tiniest plastic bag.
"I was waiting for you," I paused, wanting to say more to change the subject and feeling guilty about how he was here helping me like I was a kid again. To hide from those who hounded me to stand up and do things when I was feeling burned out from everything. I wanted to escape the problems and enjoy the high of gaming. Fight some monsters, grow a farm, solve a mystery, do something so chaotically wrong that it was hilarious, to celebrate it all without having to worry about a deadline or others depending on me.
The crinkling sound of a small plastic bag floating in front of my face snapped me back to reality.
"You need this O-ring to fix your problem." Rick shook the bag again in front of me.
I grabbed it and put the small ring in my basket. I steadied my thoughts to analyze why I agreed to come here. Rick was an expert, and it was good to learn from him. "Thank you. I also need a new handle. The whole thing blew off, and I had to shut of the water off."
"Yeah, sometimes stopping it at the source works, but doesn't fix it. I've had problems where I silence them, but the missing handle and control were still there. Pressure builds up and pieces break because the problem wasn't truly fixed." He gave me a smile, one that didn't go to his eyes because pity held it back along with the information he was withholding.
One you gave to children because the full truth sucked to tell them.
"This isn't about sinks only, is it?" I pointed to a new faucet and handle set to give a distraction from the feelings I had. "Think I should stick to brushed nickel?"
He grabbed one way down on the bottom corner, the same color, and had a brand called Mooree. "Too cheap. Grab this one. It'll survive that swinging arm Tristan's got. Did you ever tell those two about everything going on with Beth?"
We avoided directly saying it. As if declaring that Beth had higher priorities over the family made it true. That the kids came second. "No, and it is feeling like you are doing the same for her, too. Why are we doing that?" I breathed out the last bit, gripping the faucet handle tighter.
Rick was in a talkative mood, thankfully tonight. "I'm not doing that for her. I've only told you everything that passed between her and me. It's your job to talk to the kids. I'm seeing history repeat with you and Beth that happened with me and your mom. Except this time, you are me. You need to talk to the kids about why their mom is not at home. You also need to talk about your problems, too." He put a hand up to stop me from talking. "Elaine can take it. She's at the same age as you when you started rebelling."
"What do you mean?" I thought about the past. Back when Beth and I were together raising the kids, not passerby in the hallway.
"You're trying to protect them from thinking their mom is putting them second, but you skirt around answering the questions. It's forced you to pretend that you're solo. You hate it when the Elaine wasn't talking to you and lying, but what are you doing now? Hiding from your problems? Trying to keep them safe with your own plan? What's their plan? You're not a team if the ship is sinking."
I defensively laughed to cover up my annoyance at the interrogation. Anyone else, I would be mad at, but Uncle Rick, he cared and always did. He was also always there in the past. He knew the hell and trouble I caused, hoping my mom would see me.
"Are you ever going to give me a chance to answer all these questions?"
He patted my back and directed me toward the cashier. "You'll need time to think and we'll have plenty with the sink at your home. You're not hiding information if you never ask, but remember, you never asked about your mom because you didn't know you could or what you could ask."
He left me there with the two items and a bunch of questions. I didn't think I hid that much from the kids. That with the stream off, we would be safer and better. It was the only problem I hadn't told them, but it wasn't like they needed to know. It didn't change their lives.
I smacked my forehead. This was exactly the problem that Uncle Rick was talking about. I was covering up my mess, lying in a way. Originally, I thought the Root and Seeds of the Problem was my quest alone, that the kids benefited from the buff. Not that they also wanted the grand reward, and they were kids having their first adventure and I should let them do it. They were talking to me the whole time. I just wasn't listening back then. If I wanted communication within the guild, I better start being a better example to Elaine and Tristan, and I would continue it when we got home, telling them everything that was happening in the family so we could support each other.