Mundane to Magic - On Hiatus

Chapter Four: Family

Instead of using the latch on the side to open the door Grant starts pounding on the door. He's taking far too many precautions in my opinion. Val couldn't even make her way through town; she won't find her way to our front door.

"No one is here right now. Leave a message at the beep. BEEEEP." A small voice giggled from behind the door. Well, at least it's not mom.

"Julie, open the..." But my threat is cut off when the door swings open and not only in my little sister standing there but my mother's slender figure is right beside her. Her face is red and splotchy, her eyes straining with anger. Crap.

"I should have you on the crank for days, only leaving to use the bathroom." Mother has a way of making us feel like small children, even though we tower over her by a foot. She is small, but a force.

Grant grimaces. There was no doubt that mother would make good on her threat, she had before and she'd do it again. The crank was one of her favorite punishments. Since my father was a whiz at all kinds of stuff we had solar panels (which most people thought were something of the past), but it wasn't always enough so a crank was installed. It took hours and hours of cranking for anything substantial but it was a great punishment. Needless to say most of us only toed the line when it came to our mother.

Suddenly, our mother's body goes rigid as her eyes land on our guest. Maybe Grant was right and I should have asked...somehow.

"Oh hello dear, I'm Annie. Come in, come in." She steps aside to let us in, and Julie leads Val down the stairs hopping playfully. When we try to pass my mom and catch up to Val she swivels around, hands on her hips. "And where is the minivan?"

Crap. I completely forgot about the minivan. I thought we could get away with taking the minivan since mother and father were busy in dad's workshop, I figured we could just slip in and out with it and they wouldn't even notice. I can't believe she noticed the van was usually parked in the forest a little ways away.

"Well, the riot was a little too crazy to drive it back." Grant answers truthfully and my mouth drops open in shock. He's usually the one who comes up with stories and he decides to tell the truth now?

"A RIOT? What were YOU doing in a RIOT?" Our mother's voice becomes shrill and I cringe; well so much for hiding the crazy from Val. In no time she will be running for the door.

I mutter a brief explanation, using as much of the truth as possible but I leave out the reason that we went into town in the first place. We'd heard about the commotion at the farmer's house that morning and I wanted to see why he was taken. What can I say? I'm nosey.

Luckily for me mom starts yelling at Grant, the known trouble maker of the family and I start sneaking past. Suddenly my mother gasps and races down the stairs nearly knocking me over. Heart pounding I follow her, what is going on?! When I finally make it down the stairs it's like she's going twice as fast as normal straightening pillows and picking up the house.

"Welcome to our home." She sputters out of breathe, "It's a little strange living underground, I know but we like it."

"Yeah, you might like it." My eldest sister Abby sneers from the corner of the room with a click of her tongue. She turns back to an old magazine that I'm sure she's read thousands of times. My mother promptly ignores her; about a month ago she decided no longer to give Abby any recognition when she hates on the bunker. It is what it is.