About a boy part 3

Continued from here.

Kenneth carried his wife to bed, tucked her in and closed the door. They would have people over for lunch today. Angela thought they might as well invite some of the grieving family members who had not been invited to the riverside restaurant over. Afterall they would expect something since they had not been included the day before. He had been succesful at persuading his wife to hire a catering company to take care of the lunch. Not because he had expected her to be in bed sleeping off two bottles of wine but just so she didn't have to worry too much. Now he wondered if she'd be awake when they arrived, let alone ready to receive the guests.

He went into Perrys room expecting him to be asleep. Perry slept a lot, and Kenneth had always thought it was too much. To his surprise his son was sitting on floor, fully dressed, playing with his Barbie dolls. Perry had always loved playing with dolls, and he now had 4 Barbie dolls and a Ken doll. Sarah, Jessica, Sophie, Chloe and Marc. Kenneth smiled and told him to get ready for breakfast. It wasn't a problem for him that Perry liked playing with dolls, he'd grow out of it in a few years. Angela didn't like it, he knew it, but she never mentioned it. He lingered in the doorway looking at his son, setting his dolls down at the kitchen table preparing to have their breakfast.

The front door suddenly slammed. Oh, God! JOHN! How could they have forgotten. They'd sent him home with Olivia, her husband and their children. Kenneth chuckled, remembering the urinal mint debacle. He just caught the back of his older son storming into his room before the door was shut, and locked. Now that the door was locked he couldn't really do anything, so he went to the kitchen and started breakfast. It had to be special today, pancakes, omelettes and waffles.

Perry came into the kitchen and sat down, looking at his father. "Where's mother?" he asked. She was always up first, making coffee and setting up for breakfast. Especially when company was coming. "I'm right here Perry, and.... Oh Kenneth, give me those eggs you couldn't make an omelette if your life depended on it" Angela said. Kenneth knew he couldn't argue with that and handed over the eggs. He then went to set the table and get John out of his room. The latter proving to be quite difficult despite the promise of waffles.

John was furious when he sat down at the kitchen table. It was one thing to spend the day with his aunt Olivia, but spending the night there? Unforgivable! Perry was so lucky and spoiled, never getting into trouble. He, was always the one who got blamed. His father especially, took Perrys side. It just wasn't fair he felt. In order to make it more evident how angry he was, he started staring down Perry. He knew that eventually Perry would catch on and alert the parents. Angela, however, was the one who spotted it first, returning his stare with an icy glare followed by "don't stare, dear, it's not polite to stare". John finished his waffles, put his dirty dishes in the dishwasher and went to his room.

They sat there in silence. Then Angela broke the silence "Sally is coming today, I thought you'd like that". She looked at Perry, expecting some sort of recognition. There was none. Perry ate his pancakes in silence, like he hadn't heard her. She then addressed Kenneth "Should we setup tables in the garden or should we keep it in the livingroom?". Kenneth looked at his wife, thought for a minute, then "We could setup the parasols on the patio, that would be lovely". Angela thought about it for a minute, then decided that would work. She wondered when the caterers would arrive. Afterall it was an important day, they should understand that everything had to be perfect. They finished their breakfast in silence. There wasn't anything to discuss anyway. It had been settled, they would entertain on the patio and Sally would be there.

Perry slowly walked past Johns room, he had only been in there once or twice as far as he remembered. He did remember there was a poster of a naked woman on the back of the door. She was standing, holding a big hose wearing a firemans helmet and boots. He found that odd. Why would a woman fight fire naked. It seemed a bit risky. As he went down the hall he approached Seans room. He'd been in there a million times. It was his favorite place in the house.

Seans room had hardwood flooring unlike Johns and his own room. There was a big fluffy chair and shelves with books all around. In the corner there was a birdcage in which a little lime green canary bird sat perched on a plastic stick drinking water. It was Muppet, a noisy bird that he knew his mother couldn't wait to get rid of. Perry would sometimes, like today, sneak into the room and sit behind the door on a little foot rest looking in the books and Disney magazines. He especially liked Donald Duck, the mice not so much. Mickey was so annoying. Sometimes at night, when everyone had gone to sleep he would sneak in there, sit in the chair for hours in the dark. Just thinking, of nothing in particular, just thinking.

It was one such night he got to thinking about God. His mother had forced him to pray every night before bed ever since Sean got sick. She said it would help make Sean better. His mother wouldn't lie to him, he knew that much. If she said something, it had to be true. So he had prayed and prayed every night. For the first week. He really meant it. Still, he was having his own problems in kindergarten so by week 3 he didn't pray anymore. That was bad, but Anne in kindergarten had been particularly rough on him and he just didn't have the energy. Even when his mother came in and prayed with him, he faked it. It wasn't out of ill will it was just, he had his own life. Life in kindergarten wasn't just dressing up and afternoon fruit. It was a backstabbing, name calling, betrayal, cheese lunches and the occational punch in the face. The adults would be stunned to know how cruel kids could be. But he knew, sitting in that chair, it was his fault Sean didn't get better. If only he'd meant it. If only he'd prayed more.

Perry went in and gave Muppet some food, then he sat down in the middle of the room and looked around wondering. What would happen to Seans room? Then Angela walked in looking at Perry. "You really shouldn't be in here" she said, "did you tidy up your room, the guests will be here in a matter of hours and the caterers will be here any minute now". He shook his head and went to his room. Angela made sure Perry had gone before she went over and lifted the mattress of Seans bed. She knew it would be there somewhere. Before Sean had passed away he had told his father that he had kept a diary. One he really didn't want anyone to read. Kenneth had told her about it the day after Sean had died.

Angela was too curious to let it go, she wanted to read it. Why wouldn't Sean want anyone to read it. Alas, it wasn't there. Kenneth had looked for it as well but none of them could find it. Sean had said it was blue with a combination lock. She had found school things she'd never seen before and notes that appeared to have been signed by her. Yet it looked more like Johns handwriting but no diary. She left room, pulled a key out of her pocked and locked the door behind her. It would be inappropriate for people to go in there and if there was ever an inappropriate crowd it would be the ones coming today. Angela went to the kitchen to start arranging the glasses.

The door bell rang. Outside stood Sally beaming at the sight of Perry running to the door. She hugged him and quickly gave him a tenner before anyone else noticed it. For your dream house she said. He smiled knowingly. Then she went to the patio to say hello to Kenneth. "She's in the kitchen" he said "probably polishing the glasses yet again". Sally smiled "I'd better go help her then". Kenneth smiled at put up another parasol. He knew it was going to be a very hot day.