The Loud House - Wild Card

Chapter 7 - Unpleasant Memories

"Kids," Said Lynn Loud, Sr, calling up the stairs to his children's room. "You need to get down here. Your mother and I need to speak with you."

It had been a month since Lincoln's disappearance. The house of Loud was unbearably quiet these days. There was no laughter, sounds of music, no explosions, not even the sound of arguing. Only silence. The children had grown more and more despondent as the days turned to weeks after Lincoln vanished. The finger they had found had shook them to their core, and each of them were hoping desperately that it did not belong to their missing brother. That hope was shattered when the forensic report came back.

Racked with guilt, Rita and Lynn Sr. knew that if there was any chance of finding Lincoln, they would have to cooperate fully with the police, which included confessing to what led to him being outside in the first place. They were immediately apprehended and processed into the county jail. Once Albert had bailed them out, they had met with a lawyer to discuss their legal liability.

The Loud kids shuffled down the stairs from their rooms, taking their seats in the living room. Lynn Sr. sighed as he looked over his sullen children. It was hard to believe that just a month ago his children were stampeding through the house, happily pursuing their passions and causing mischief. He knew one day the halls of the Loud House would one day grow silent, but he could have never expected it would be so soon, and he never wanted it to be in these circumstances.

He knew he and Rita failed as parents. Raising 1 child was a difficult task for most parents, let alone raising 11. Until recently he always thought that he was doing a good job, but his convictions were now greatly shaken. Because there were so many of them, and he and his wife were working full-time jobs, they were already in over their heads with things to do. When each of the girls started developing interests in various extra-curricular activities, it only stretched the parents even more thin. A natural solution to this was to adopt a hands-off parenting approach. They would be there for their children to offer their love, guidance, and necessities, and do their best to spend time with them as often as they could, but advocated for little intervention when it came to most decisions in their lives. If the children had problems, they would allow them to work it out among themselves, only getting involved if absolutely necessary. This proved to work for a while, and helped the children develop a sense of independence and self-reliance. However, this situation with Lincoln proved to them that they had relied too heavily on their children not only to work out their own problems, but also to keep the house afloat in their absence. Despite all their skill and intelligence, they were still children, and they needed more from their parents than they were able to give.

The most damning and disheartening of this situation was the realization of how much the family depended on Lincoln. His presence served as a linchpin for them, and without him, they began to fall apart. His strategic thinking and organizational skills helped get them through the aspects of home life that the parents were either too busy to take care of or his siblings simply did not care to do, being distracted pursuing their own various activities instead. They all realized sadly how much they pushed their problems onto their brother, how much he had to serve as a problem-solver and peacemaker for them, and how much he did for them even when they didn't ask or were too busy to notice. And yet, whenever he needed something, they were usually too wrapped up in their own lives to notice or care, prompting him to go through drastic measures to satisfy his wants and needs.

Often, these measures would cause problems, and he would be punished severely for them. It seemed he was always taking the brunt of some sort of punishment on a weekly basis, but the girls would rarely face such punishment. He would bear them quietly for the most part, and would consistently push his goals and desires to the side to help those around him in their time of need. If they had just realized the reason behind his schemes and plans was because of neglect for his basic needs and his starvation for recognition and accommodation, instead of selfishly focusing only on themselves, perhaps he wouldn't have felt the need to pretend to be bad luck just to get some time to himself.