Cantrell: The Middle Years, Part Two

Under Fire, a Cantrell: The Middle Years- Update-8

Speckles, his stallion was awaiting him just outside of his front gate.  Barely materialized from the transporter beam, Erik put his hands to the stead’s muzzle. “My good, good friend, it’s been a night, hasn’t it?”

“Erik,” came a feminine voice out of the small gaggle of Paparazzi standing around. 
Erik smiled as he turned from the horse, “Nice evening, isn’t it?”
“Yes. How’s your son?” Anya asked.

This caused him to smile even wider. “Which one, I do have three, after all,” he quipped.
“The one whose been so ill, of late. How is he faring since you brought him home?”
“Andrew, thank you so much for asking. Actually, he’s doing very well.” And then Erik began to chuckle.

“What, what is it?”
“The doctor recently gave him clearance to return to school. I’ve never seen our reluctant scholar so anxious and excited to get to class in my life. Strange.  He’s doing great, although he still tends to wear down. By the end of the school day, he’s just done. That’s it, day over.”

“Oh?”
“Doctor said it’s normal. He actually wrote out a prescription verbally admonishing the boy to get MORE rest. I kid you not the word more was in bold caps. Andrew is just the type you mostly have to sit on to make sure messages sink in, you know?”

“Yeah, I know a few like that. Oh, I heard a rumor you’re about to have yet another teenager in the house, any truth to it?”

“Yes, and I’ll let you in on a big secret. The last day of Summer, Saturday, is Harmony’s birthday. You see, we had our kids boom, boom, boom and boom. They had fun growing up with each other. I just never stopped to look that far ahead as to when they would become teens. Now, I walk around in a constant state of panic. But they’re good kids, all of them. It’s been quite a journey so far. This thing called fatherhood.”

“With the SemiDemiQuaver set for this Sunday. Are you ready?”
Erik smiled and shrugged his broad shoulders. “Well, let me see now. I’ve got a record out, and I’ve got my invitation, if that’s what you mean.”
“Oh, sometimes you are just too coy by half,” Anya said, knowing he wasn’t about to give her anything close to an answer, as usual, and then she laughed as she walked away. “Have a good evening, sir.”

“You do the same. Nice chatting with you. Come on, Boy, let’s get you into the stables for the night.” Glancing upward at all the lights on the second floor that should be out by now, he said, “Time for me to help round up the kids and herd them into bed.” Taking his horse by the reigns, Erik led the animal to the back of his estate.

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

Just as Erik was heading out for the day to attend to his own schedule of events, he took a moment to step into the dining room, especially when he heard two of his children bargaining over who was to put up which decoration. One of them wasn’t supposed to be on this crew. “Rock, paper, scissors,” he heard Harmony say. That’s when he stepped in to intervene. “Excuse me, ah, excuse me,” he began.

“Now, I don’t mean to criticize here, and things are truly looking very nice. But this is for Harmony.” he put a hand on her shoulder. “And we all know Harmony’s favorite color is ----”
“Oh, my gosh purple!” Cadence said. “Peter, Peter, why did you grab the pink decorations? This is for Harmony. Quickly get that stuff down and go get the new stuff mom just bought. Thank you. Daddy. This could have been very embarrassing.”

“Unless, of course, Harmony, who isn’t supposed to be in on this has had a change of heart when it comes to her favorite color.”
“No.”
“Then why did you allow them to make such a mistake?”
“I didn’t want to appear ungrateful. So, they got a color wrong. Who am I to grouse over it, right?”

“You have a very good heart my daughter. But there are times in your life when you just have to speak up for yourself. I have to go, and I have to be gone, now. Bye!” With that the musician beamed himself out from the dining room.
“Oh, my goodness. People come and go so quickly here,” Cadence said with a wry grin. “I have been waiting all morning to use that line.”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

While her children were off at school on this 12th day of Summer, Kayleigh called upon Brianna, Regina and Lorelei to help her finish up with the swapping of the colors.  “Wow, things look really nice in here —”
“Except for the color,” Kayleigh finished her triplet’s sentence. “Peter thought we should recycle the pink, instead of getting into the new purple items I purchased.  We would have used the older purple stuff, but when something is done, it’s just done. The tablecloth was hopelessly stained and the crepe paper behind the balloons, well, it was clearly time for new. And thank you so much for coming over so quickly to help bail me out.”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

With the decorating complete, in the appropriate color-scheme, the family decided to take a nice and easy Friday evening. However, as fate would have it, a quiet, easy night was not to be had. First, Andrew, trying his hand at the barbeque out in the backyard, brought in his prized platter of chicken skewers, looking mouth-wateringly delicious. He was about to place the platter on the fireplace mantel, (an old place to be sure) when suddenly a flame erupted from the side of the fireplace. “Wh-wh-wh— what the fetch? Oh, no. Help.”

While he got extremely lucky and wasn’t fully touched by the flame, his sister wasn’t so lucky. Just moments after Andrew’s encounter, he heard a tiny voice cry out. “Help.” Taking a quick peek into the kitchen, Andrew drew out his phone and called the fire department. In moments they clattered at the front door.  Andrew led them to his sister.

“I smell of burning wood! Yuk.”

“Campfire. You smell more like a campfire and that’s a descent smell if you ask me.”
“Andrew, your sense of smell has been off since you got home. Face it.”
“No need to be rude. I had a slight run in with that old devil, fire, half a second prior to your full-on encounter. What were you doing out there in the kitchen all by yourself anyway? You’re not old enough to cook unsupervised, except for use of the microwave.”
“I plead the Fifth.”

*~~*~~*~~*~~*

Despite the appearance of the not-so-friendly entity known as fire, the family got a good night’s sleep and was up all the earlier to to see to the last of the party preparations. Although Erik found himself haunted by the image of Grim floating through his living room.

Shaking it off, Erik baked two cakes, since their guest list was large and comprised mostly of teens and children. Once this was accomplished, he went straight into the repast. Melodie, left in charge of the menu, selected a nice variety of food stuffs; vegetarian ceviche, vegetarian dumplings, as well. Macaroni and cheese; taco casserole; roast chicken, which Erik oversaw on the rotisserie out back.

Before long the guests straggled in.  Harmony was nudged toward the cake table, where she proceeded to draw in a huge breath and then blow it out again. She failed on her first round, which made her very suspicious, scanning the room for the twins, since this is exactly the mischief they were known for. The second attempt, however, the candles all winked out to her delight. Sorry, boys, I misjudged you.

Dutifully, Harmony did the Twirly thing since it was fully expected of her, and besides, from the weird sensation that rippled over her, she really didn’t think she had any say in it. All at once she lifted upward into the air, twirled, with all kinds of sparkles emitting from her before she came to rest on her feet once again.

“So happy not to be a little shrimp anymore. Look at me, I’m taller than tall!” She laughed. “Oh, the sense of power, what a heady feeling that is. Somebody stop me!”
“Here you go, Sweetie,” Kayleigh said, pointing the party popper in her second daughter’s general direction. “This should simmer your jets a bit.”

“Oh, thanks Mom, phew just in time, too,” Harmony said. “Now, where was I? Oh, yes, allow me to send this to my many friends and minions.”

All for now, thanks for reading. Stayed tuned for the SemiDemiQuaver . . .