Post by → zach cool on Dec 13, 2007 16:04:14 GMT -5
when all you got to keep is
s t r o n g
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"Alright!" Zach yelled, the twins finally getting on his last nerve. He looked at the time blinking on the microwave and then back to the little hellions, who had not stopped throwing flour into the air. "Who wants to go to the park?" Finally, a moment of piece. Nick and Beth looked away from the jar of flour in their hand and tossed it to the side, forgotten in their new excitement. "Meeee!" They bothed yelled, sprinting from the kitchen. Zach let out a breath of relief and looked at the mess that the twins had made in the kitchen. The park was the only place he could keep them from making a mess, and most days it was too rainy to go to the park. They were expected a few showers later tonight, but right now it was just overcast. Zach followed the twins into the foyer of the house, where they were pulling their shoes onto their feet in an excited frenzy. "Get your jackets on." Beth looked up from her shoes and gave him a look that said 'are you kidding me?'. "I don't want to," she announced in a voice that told Zach she was decided. Zach stared at her for a few moments and said, "You'll freeze." She glared at him and snapped back, "So?" Zach shook his head, knowing he couldn't make her give in. Nick, thank God, knew that he would freeze if he didn't put his coat on. Zach went upstairs to find his own jacket in preparation for the December cold, grabbing a coat for Beth as he came back downstairs.
Then they were outside, walking toward the park. They could have driven, but the park was only fifteen minute walk from the house. Beth decided almost immidately that it felt good outside and bursted into a song that Zach was highly familiar with thanks to all of the television the twins insisted on watching while Maria wasn't home. She skipped along the path, getting distracted by a particularly unfriendly dog in one of the yards that barked as they passed by. Nick kept on running ahead, making Zach chase after him to make sure that he didn't run into the way of on coming traffic. Kids.
They made it to the park without any major incidents. It was amazing how hard two eight year olds could be to keep up with. No matter how much Zach did it, he couldn't exactly get used to it. They were really hell raisers, making a mess out of anything and everything they could get their hands on. They always came up with new ideas for how to torture people, and Zach was usually their test subject. Even though all of this was more than true, and drove Zach insane, he loved his siblings. Thinking about that made Zach's thoughts wonder to Sara. He hadn't talked to her in over a month, and he couldn't help but wonder how she was doing. He looked down at Nick and Beth, who were now wrestling for a turn on the swings, and realized for the millionth time that they really didn't know Sara. She had moved out while they were still young, and hardly ever came to visit. He wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that. He knew that Sara wouldn't be the best influence on them, because of all of the things she was going through right now, but it felt wrong for them not to know their sister. Who was Beth going to talk to when she started getting older and more mature? It was one thing to talk to your mom about boys, and another thing to talk to your sister. Nick had Zach to bug about it, but if Beth ever came to Zach with a question like that, he could honestly say he would have no idea what to tell her.
"NO, YOU HAVE COOTIES!" he heard Nick scream at Beth, and Zach grinned to himself, remembering when he thought girls had cooties. Now he didn't care if they had cooties; they were girls. He chuckled to himself, thinking about how just ten years ago he probably never would have imagined being the person that he was today. He sat down on one of the benches by the playground and tried to keep an eye on the twins, but kept getting lost in thought. He was, however, aware of how cold the air was getting and how the clouds were getting progressively darker the longer they stayed there. Some people had decided to leave, but there were some stubborn children still swinging on the monkey bars, determined to wait it out. As he looked at the park, he couldn't help but remember all of the good times he'd had there, and some of the bad. Thankfully, this was one of the places where the good stood out more than the bad.
He leaned forward, thinking more about Sara. He felt his cell phone in his pocket, and it seemed to be weighing him down, whispering tauntingly in his ear, telling him to call her. He glanced down at his watch. It was three thirty. What would she be doing right now? Would she be working? Did she work the day shift, or the night shift? It made Zach sick to realize that he didn't know the answer to any of that. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and scrolled through the numbers until he found hers. He was going to have to call her eventually, and since it was getting close to Christmas, he figured that now would be as good a time as ever. Talk. He waited impatiently as the phone rang, wondering if she was going to pick up or not. She had his number as well, so she would know who it was that was calling her. She might not even have her cell phone with her. The ringing stopped, and her voicemail message played in his ear. It was a relief to hear her voice, even if it was something that she had recorded months ago. When the beep finally came in his ear, Zach spoke. "Hey, Sara. It's Zach. I was just thinking about you. Wondering what you were up to. Give me a call, okay? Talk to you later." He flipped his phone shut and looked back over at the twins.
"Hey!" he shouted at Nick, getting to his feet and running over to his brother. "Don't do that," he told him, pulling Nick back by the collar of his shirt. Nick let go of the little boy he had been clinging onto, who ran away at the first chance he got, before Zach spun him around and looked at him for a few moments. "What was that for?" Zach asked with a curious expression. "He didn't let me butt in front of him," Nick complained, but the way he made it sound was like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Dude," Zach said, shaking his head and releasing Nick. He would feel bad for the little boy, but he had to deal with this everyday. Nick turned and lost interest in Zach, heading to the merry-go-round.
"Zach!" Zach turned to see Beth charging toward him, springing up and tackling him at the last moment, sending him backwards onto the wood chips. He looked at her as she giggled evilly and demanded, "Where's my coat?" Zach motioned to the bench he'd been sitting at with his head. "Over there," he answered. He couldn't have gotten her off of him if he had tried, so he had to wait until she got off of him and sprinted over to the bench. As Zach watched her back, he couldn't help but think that these kids should play some sports. They could run for two days straight and not be tired. He pulled himself to his feet and shook his head, walking back over to the bench and sitting down, allowing himself a little resting time from the chaos of his little brother and sister. Sometimes he thought they were too much to handle. Why his parents had ever decided to have kids after him and Sara he would never know. Hadn't they been enough trouble for one generation?