Another Day

Computer technicians would scratch their heads and shrug their shoulders at the sight of the Tori household computer. It had been cleaned, the parts updated, but still the piece of technology would do a rather convincing impression of a single engine airplane preparing for lift off. Kendra had at first been startled by it. Surely there was no way that thing was going to be able to work. But Hugo had plunked himself down in front of it enough to tap away at keys and come up with dancing water bottles for gyms websites and programs to support anti-virus software. She now was use to the frantic hum as it booted up and accepted it as just one of the strange quirks of the too tiny house that felt much too large these days.

Normally she wouldn't bother coming home to work on these last few projects. It was easier just to stay at the office. But she wasn't heartless. Mai and Chris were three and adorable. She enjoyed seeing what antics they got caught up in. Locke was out the hospital, but there were still days when he had bad migraines and ran into things. Kendra boasted about the cuteness of her children, but it was the maturity and steadiness that her step-son approached his life that made her most proud. He had a strength to him that only partially came from his father.

The drone of the computer didn't interfere with another sound that had become common. Chris was over in a corner with a toy car in one hand dancing to Another Girl while wearing a burp cloth like a superhero cape, not caring that he had no sense of rhythm or even that the song was coming to an end. He was totally lost in his own world of which there was no explanation. Mai was helping Locke with his math homework by sitting on his lap and holding open the book and sucking her thumb.

"How does pizza sound?" Kendra asked as she turned around in her chair. The thumb which had been in the mouth in such a way that the hand it was attached to was upside down came out and Mai asked "Tza?" She still had problems with that word, but the prospect of the gooey cheesey snack made her squirm on Locke's lap. Chris fell over backwards, laughing as the car went flying out of his hand, still partially wandering through the childhood reverie.

"That's one vote." Locke let the child go and she ran to her mother. Chris, never wanting to be far behind copied her. "And that's two. Locke?"

The teen might be ignoring her, because he was flipping through his papers. Math had never been his strongest class, and now that Hugo wasn't around to help him anymore the grades were dropping even lower. He struggled and fought with it each night, his face growing tighter with every equation. "Locke?" she repeated.

"Mmm," was the non-committal response. So he had heard her, but just didn't care. Kendra ruffled Chris's hair and asked him if he could go get the phone. It hurt to see Locke struggling with something that he should be good at. Locke followed logic, approaching problems with calm calculations as if he were the noisy computer she was sitting in front of instead of a thirteen year old who's voice had just started cracking. What hurt more was these brief moments when she caught a glimpse of something wrong in him.

She was there in the hospital when the doctors got him out of surgery, drugged up so heavily that he wouldn't try moving. An eye that had glass and metal in it, broken arm, mangled leg that had to be set, pinned, and torn ligaments mended. She had held his hand, squeezing it because the gurney and her stomach would not allow her to hold him in any other way. He was getting to be so big now, but in that bed, in that sterile environment he looked small and she could see that he was just eleven and when he woke up it was going to be a frightening world. Locke was better. He was adjusting to the blind eye, and his limp was getting less and less noticible. Other then the silence, there seemed to be nothing wrong with him emotionally. But she still had to wonder if when he mended something inside of him had not been set quite right. "We can get breadsticks if you'd like."

"Yeah, sounds good," he told her, looking at he briefly with a smile. Those were rare, even before the accident. Only the twins really got them to come easily. Kendra should be glad that he gave her one. It meant that he might be warming up to her at last. But there was that hazy nagging feeling, the feeling that some part of the equation was wrong.