Good morning one and all. I hope everyone is feeling good on this Monday morning. Usually Mondays aren’t my favorite but I have to say after a weekend of resting and recuperating from last week I am feeling ready to face a brand new week. It is a great feeling. I even managed to get up before my alarm went off. My world always works so much better when I can get up on my own without the aid of the alarm. Unfortunately my internal clock thinks 9 or 9:30 is the right time to get up, which sadly doesn’t work. Today though, my eyes popped open a full eighteen minutes before my alarm. Ha, take that internal body clock. So let’s get started on the morning prompt. Timers at the ready? Off we go…
This could be a fun one to write. I suspect that there will be funds as well as property and a step-father who wants control of both. I really kind of want to see where this story goes. Nice for a Monday.
Monday, March13th: There is no excuse.
“There is no excuse,” he said. The words were cold and left no room for argument. Andy stared at him. A million thoughts ran through his mind but none of them seemed like things that ought to be said aloud, at least not here.
He nodded instead, lips clamped shut. He struggled to maintain a calm and neutral demeanor as his faults, as his step father saw them, were laid out. They were lined up and pronouncement made. Judgement was harsh.
After each pronouncement he looked at Andy as though waiting for a rebuttal. Knowing the reception any rebuttal would have, he kept his mouth shut. It was a struggle. Inside his thoughts railed against accepting the judgement, the condemnation. He counted in a slow measured pace timing his breathing to the numbers to keep his anger in check.
‘I just have to make it through this one more time,’ he told himself between breathes. ‘This is the last time.’
Finally it was over. His ears were ringing with the harshness of the pronouncements but his step father finally ran out of invective.
“Well,” he said looking Andy over. “I see you have at least managed to learn how to accept constructive criticism.”
Andy nodded still not trusting his own voice.
“You are dismissed.” Andy turned and walked away. He exited his step-father’s at home office, the place from where he issued the commands of his household. As he shut the door behind himself he heard the snigger. He didn’t turn to look. He knew his two older step brothers would be on one side and his two younger step-brothers were on the other side.
He was odd man out. The only boy in the house not blood related to his step-father. His mother, Alice was his step-father’s second wife. She brought him with her when she married and then less than a year later was killed in a car accident. Six months after her death his stepfather remarried. His new step mother had twins fourteen months later. Andy remained sandwiched between, tolerated as his step father doted on the other children.
He was stuck until he was old enough to leave. That day was three days ago. His birthday, as usual came and went with no remark and Andy wondered if any of them remembered. It was of little relevance to him, especially as his escape plan was already in place. He was, as usual off to summer camp this afternoon. He was sent off every year once school ended so that he would at least be out of his step-father’s sight for nearly three months.
As no one attended any of his school events no one seemed to have realized that he passed his final exams and actually had his graduation ceremony. He didn’t point it out and when he brought his trunks down from the attic in addition to packing his summertime things, he packed anything that had any value to him in the bags as well.
A few weeks before his birthday, he was contacted by a lawyer from his mother’s family informing him that he inherited. He had a meeting with the lawyer and found out all of the details. When he left here, he would not be going to camp as expected but instead relocating to an apartment that was held in trust for him and maintained by a stewardship until he came of age. Apparently his grandparent’s hadn’t trusted his step-father with the details and his mother hadn’t the time between her marriage and death to transfer anything into his name.
Andy went to gather his things and for a fleeting moment wondered if anyone would notice that he wasn’t coming back at the end of the summer, or that he never arrived at camp. It was a thought he held in check as he made his way out of the door for what he hoped was the last time. He would not breathe easy until he was gone from this place and completely out of the shadow of his step-father’s house.
Ten til Midnight 