A Quiet Evening At Home

The scent of spices filled the air as John pushed the door open, out of breath once again from a second sprint after the bus had dropped him off. He’d sent a text during the ride to say that he’d been delayed and explain why; his mom’s reply had been quick and cheerful. “Glad you’re focusing on your studies, I’ve just got in so I’ll order food now and it should be here by the time you get back.”

Brenda was sitting at the kitchen table, looking at a collection of takeaway carrier bags with a slightly worried expression. Hearing him come in, she stood and gestured to the bags. “Welcome home, sweetheart. I… may have overestimated how hungry we’d be by more than usual this time. I know you like curry, but I hope you don’t mind if we end up having it for a few days now… or you could take some for lunch?”

John dropped his jacket onto a chair and began to help take the containers out of the bags, trying hard not to laugh at just how much food she’d ordered for the pair of them. Even if they both ate their fill and he did take a sizable lunch tomorrow, they’d probably end up having to throw most of it away long before they could eat through even half of what was now filling the table. “I’ll take some… and maybe for my friends too?” he suggested, retrieving plates from the cupboard and helping himself to a little of everything that took his fancy while thinking about how long even one of the containers would probably last if he offered it to the pictsies as a gift.

“That’d be lovely, sweetheart. I’d hate for this to all go to waste. So, how was your day? Did you meet up with your girlfriend?” his mother asked casually, settling down with her own plate after she had loaded it high with spiced dishes.

John debated his reply for a moment. He had technically met up with Matilda, given she’d been on the lunch counter again - but they’d both been busy as he’d arrived during the lunch rush and thus they’d only been able to exchange pleasantries while she dished him up pasta-bake. True, they’d also texted a little while he was on the way home - but he definitely didn’t want to talk about that with his mother, given the way blood rushed south when he thought of some of the things his girlfriend had been suggesting.

“Sort of? We were both really busy. I’m hoping to meet up with her one evening this week for a date in town…” he began, before his mom’s delighted gasp interrupted him.

“A date in the evening? Oh my goodness, my little boy is all grown up. Where are you taking her? No, wait, don’t tell me… the cinema, right? Or the mall? Or…” Brenda’s words spilled out like a tide, while John sat patiently waiting for her to exhaust a list of basically every possible outing imaginable in town.

“We’re probably just going to go for another walk in the park, or maybe look at a few of the older buildings around town. I’ve not fully decided yet, it depends on what she feels like on the day. We’ll grab a snack somewhere too, or perhaps a meal if we have time, though she’s a little particular about food, so that’ll depend on how hungry we are,” John mused once his mother had calmed down, thinking back over the conversation he’d had via text with Matilda earlier - and sanitizing it heavily, given the number of suggestions the brunette had made that were definitely not something he wanted to share with his mother.

From there, the conversation settled into safer territory for John. Brenda asked the expected parental questions - how was he doing at Ashcroft, was he keeping on top of his work given his delayed return home, and how were his friends doing? Given that he had people he could consider friends now, Wesley for one, and Rebecca for another - although calling the woman a friend felt a little odd given their relationship to date - John could actually answer that last question with more detail and fewer lies or omissions than usual.

He’d thought his casual brushing off of similar questions had worked in the past, but as he explained how Wesley had been bugging him during their previous match to give play-by-email chess a go Brenda smiled at him and he suddenly realized how little he’d actually managed to hide from her in that regard. “I’m so glad you’ve got actual friends now, sweetheart. I’d been worried that you were lonely between spending all your time in your room and changing the subject whenever I mentioned the idea of you inviting classmates home.” Her words were soft, but it was clear - he’d been fooling nobody with regards to how few people had wanted anything to do with him at Ashcroft until recently.

Doing his best to change the subject, he asked about her work, given she’d seemed busier than usual over the past week. “Oh, you know how it is,” she sighed, shaking her head, “important clients from out of town come in and suddenly everything is all up in the air. But…” she paused, holding a finger in the air, “…if we manage to convince them to invest, then there should be some bonuses coming down the line. Plus whatever we can squeeze out of the real estate deals that any serious investment will be tied to.”

John nodded, not entirely sure he understood but glad she seemed happy enough about it. He’d never quite figured out exactly how to describe her job in the past; during his school years, he’d dreaded it whenever a teacher asked him to draw or describe his parents’ jobs. Thankfully, that wasn’t something that’d crop up at Ashcroft, but even so… The firm she currently worked for were essentially go-getters for the rich and powerful; they took on clients, then did the leg work on finding them whatever they wanted to spend their money on - ideally before their clients even knew they wanted to spend money on it.

Handing his mother one of the takeaway containers and watching as she topped up her plate, he found himself idly thinking how glad he was that she had a mundane job. No matter how weird his life got between religious orders and chaos gods, he could rely on things being normal as far as Brenda was concerned. “So, Mom, anything you can spill about this all-powerful client? I know you don’t like sharing the details, but if they’re buying real estate, it’s gotta be someone big, right?”

Brenda frowned, fork halfway to her lips before shrugging and taking a bite. Once she’d swallowed, she gestured idly with the prongs of her cutlery. “I don’t actually know much. Mr Henderson’s handling most of the day-to-day for this one, I’m just working on location scouting for some office, agricultural, and residential properties we think they’ll need - which is why I keep coming home so late. You would not believe how bad the traffic is getting back into Springfield some nights after I’ve been busy looking at barns and dusty fields all day. Sorry to disappoint, but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t drop any movie star names for you, sweetheart. All I know about the clients is that they’re from Europe - England, I think? Somewhere with a lot of ‘shires’ in the names, anyway, which sounds English to me.”

The conversation had wound down after that - back to idle chatter, back to just a mother and son enjoying a rare night to discuss their lives. Once he’d finished clearing away the leftover food, John said goodnight and headed up to bed. The next day was Wednesday, which meant Matilda would be free all day… as he settled under his duvet, he pulled his phone from his Inventory, and sent her a message. ”You still up?”

The reply came quicker than he’d expected. ”Yea. Kinda. Just got into bed, it’s so big without you.” It was followed almost immediately by a slightly blurry picture of Matilda, blankets tucked up to her chin with a tired smile on her face.

”You fancy taking a trip into town tomorrow? I know it’s your day off and we were talking earlier about meeting up much later in the week, but I want to drop something off with some friends after class, and then I could show you the temple?” John typed, wondering idly where he could take his girlfriend for snacks if she was available.

Matilda typed and retyped her answer a few times, the icon flashing on John’s phone before at last her message came through. ”That’d be amazing. It’s a date, tho I still expect to see you towards the weekend too! Are these our sort of friends, or do you want to meet up with me afterward?” Reading it, he smiled. Of course, his meeting with friends from Ashcroft while he had one of the lunch ladies in tow would have caused a lot of awkward questions, but by ‘our sort of friends’, he guessed she was thinking about the Abyss.

”Very much our sort. Charming when you get to know them, if a little on the temperamental side. I’d bring something from the garden as a gift if there’s anything ready to harvest.” He fired off the reply quickly, then added an afterthought, “Oh, and can’t remember if I mentioned but ‘the temple’ has a bedroom in it…” Matilda’s reply to that remark, along with another blurry picture she’d added, did a lot to help him relax before he fell asleep.