Beginning to regain his breath completely and wiping off the hail of sweat dripping from his head using a napkin he had hidden in his bag he rings Ms.Parkinson’s house bell. Ms.Parkinson’s ecstatic laugh could be heard even from outside the house. The laughing quickly stops and she opens the door. Looking at Wells and after looking at the time on her phone from her thin pocket, she smiles. “On time I see. That’s good.” She moved away from the door and told him to come in. Inside the home, he could see her husband in a very expensive suit. Wells went to greet the man and surprisingly quickly got to know him. He was a very relaxed dude and was very witty, in a funny way. He could crack jokes and make laughter out of the most silent of situations. His jokes were soon interrupted with another laughter. This time coming from the living room. Both Ms. and Mr. Parkinson guided Wells and gave a tour of the house. It was a fairly large home, much larger than where he lived. There were cracked walls here and there, the home was filled with the smell of sweat, and there was dust everywhere. Even though his place was a lot better compared to this home, the place somehow felt very homey, something that was missing back at his apartment. In the end, he was shown to the living room where her kids sat in front of the tv. Even through the ruckus ever since he had entered the home the kids sat unnoticed to the outside environment. However, with a cleared throat from their mother, the two kids instantly turned and looked at them. “This is your babysitter for today. Make sure to treat him well and give him lots of respect, ok?”. “Ok” chimed the kids in unison, quickly moving their heads back to the game they were playing. “ Sorry,” said Ms. Parkinson, they’re usually like this.” “No problem, this is normal with all kids nowadays, don’t worry, I got this.” Ms. and Mr. Parkinson look at each other, then begin to leave. Not being able to hide her excitement Ms.Parkinson runs toward the front door. “Wells, again, thank you.” she said as she put on her shoes. “Anytime Ms. Parkinson”. They then left, leaving Wells alone with the kids.
Wells then turned toward the living room. On his way, he lifted his head, readied his voice and tried to look like a responsible adult. Their parents left for the rest of the day however didn’t bother the kids at all. Rather, they were very absorbed in their multiplayer shooter, on the bright screened curved tv. Wells really didn’t even need to be there. He stood at the entrance of the living room and stared at the kids playing for a bit as leaned on the arched pillar that separated the entrance of the living room and the kitchen. Wells, not knowing what to do headed for the kitchen. It didn’t seem as though the two kids had eaten yet as there were ingredients laid on the kitchen counter with a small sticky note beside it saying, “Kids, please cook and eat by 7:30, Love Mom.” By the look of the kids on the tv, he knew they weren’t going to cook for themselves. Plus he didn’t want to bother them to do so either. The boy, the youngest of the siblings, is only 10 and the other, the girl, is 12. “In the future, they wouldn’t get time to do things like this”, he thought. He smiled and stood in front of the kitchen counter and stared deep into space. He thought about him and other kids in the orphanage fighting for one of the three remotes for the one console, the fights over food, and just not caring about a single thing. He didn’t want to ruin that for these kids, even for a moment. “You got to live up to the fun times now, or you may not get them again”, he thought again. He began to cook with the limited expertise he had. He had learned the basics of how to cook in his orphanage and also practiced cooking with the always limited supplies he had. Though it was during times and places like these where he could truly practice cooking, a kitchen not only consisting of a sink, a stove and a small tabletop but lots of fresh ingredients he hadn’t seen in a while too. He washed his hands and got to work. Smoke rose from the pans as he created many different kinds of dishes. The aroma coming from the kitchen even made the two kids look his way one or two times but he was mainly keen on getting all his dishes right. Checking the temperature in the meat and making sure the vegetables don’t overcook, took him a while, but he eventually finished. He put the stove’s overhead fan on high and placed the various masterpieces as he thought of them, on the table. They were plated with elegance and smelled amazing. So much so, that the kids instantly came after the table was set to eat. They sat down and ate quickly. As they did Wells briefly heard through their muffled sound eating, their gratitude for cooking their meal. Not responding he let them eat. In a matter of a few short minutes, the kids cleaned their plates and ran back to their couch to play games once again. Before they could jump on the sofa Wells called them. They then stopped and waited for what Wells had to say. “I have a small present for you both.” Wells then pulled out the game from his bag that he had saved in the game store. The kids silently looked at Wells and then the game, and eventually, they took the game from Wells’ hand. They then switched the game cartridges to the game he had just given them and they were off to play again.
He soon found no merit in waiting for the twins to do something else. He knew they were just going to sit there all day. Ms.Parkinson never really needed to call Wells today. These kids don’t really do anything out of the ordinary anyway. He knew that even if he left those kids, they would stay in the same exact spot until their parents came and told them to go to bed. In the end, he decided to sit outside for a bit. Slowly the sun faded and it was getting a little dark outside. The streetlights were beginning to turn on and Wells could see the moon slowly rising. There were many clouds but through some of the thin clouds, you could make the light of the moon slowly start to seep onto the street. He sat on the first of two steps leading to the front door, making sure the door was closed behind him. A slow wind was once again swirling around him. As he sat there simply breathing in the fresh wind, around the street in front of Ms.Parkinson’s house the wind began to swirl. All the different leaves and twigs around began to swirl in a tight spiral, going around and around. He had seen this kind of thing from time to time, like a tiny tornado. Though he hadn’t really cared about this weird phenomenon before, it currently had his entire attention as the spiral of air grew taller and taller. Eventually, the spiral was a few inches taller than him, becoming thicker and thicker. The colour of the small tornado slowly became a darkish colour of gray. Wells began to get scared of his irrational thought that there may be a tornado starting right in front of him. He looked back at the house, “the kids!” he thought. He ran to the door and tried to shake it open, no response. He pushed and pulled at the doorknob but it didn’t budge. He didn’t lock the door, he was sure of it. Scared the kids might be in trouble, Wells moved to the side of the house, banging on the windows outside of the kitchen and living room windows banging them and moving back and forth between them. The kids, as always, looked as if they had heard nothing and continued to play their game. He couldn’t even get a single glance from them. He looked back at the spiral. “Well, at least it didn’t seem to be growing any larger,” he thought to himself.
Unable to go back inside, and confused as to what was happening in front of him, Wells decided to wait it out and see what the spiral does. He then sat down at the very spot he sat before and simply stared at it. Nothing unusual from the unusual didn’t happen though. It simply spun over and over again in the shape of an ice cream cone. Moments later the spiral began to sink starting from the top, slowly rescinding. At the same time, Wells could slowly start to see a hat stick out from the top. The small tornado then began to reveal a face, a beautiful dress and someone who wore large high heels. The small tornado then revealed a person and vanished. Wells looked at her in confusion. While her face was covered by the large blue hat, he recognized who she was, “the woman at the store”, he said by accident out loud. “Yes it is”, the woman said in a very witty tone. After Wells and the mysterious lady exchanged looks she said, “look at the letter”. She again smiled like how she did at the store and the moment Wells had time to blink she vanished from his sight.
