The church bells rang as the clock struck three in the afternoon. As the sound resonated within the small town of Everview, a pair of footsteps quickened its pace. With an umbrella in hand, a young lady headed towards the chapel, unaffected by the strong gusts of wind blowing her long, dark hair all over her face.
As she drew nearer, she could hear a little girl exclaim from a distance. "Look, Andy! Cole's sister is here!" When she was close enough, she was able to lock her gaze upon her little brother, Cole, who was waiting for her right in front of the kindergarten, situated beside the town's chapel.
"I'm sorry I'm late," she whispered as she went after him. The sweet little boy was staring at the sky with his gleaming doe eyes, fascinated by the dark clouds that littered the usually orange-toned afternoon sky. His view was interrupted by a strike of lightning, followed by an overwhelmingly loud thunderclap, making him cling to his sister's leg in surprise. "It's okay," the latter stroke the child's head, reassuring him, "I'm here." Finally, she turned to the man in front of them, "Andrew, I'm so sorry you had to stay back with Dream again to keep Cole some company."
"Come on, Caramel, you give me too much credit," the man just smiled at her sentiment. He had told her countless times before to just call him Andy or Drew like everyone else but she always sounds so stiff and formal as she uses his real name. He pointed at the child beside him, "I just got here to pick up this brat, anyway."
"Liar!" Dream, the little girl who is in the same class as Cole in kindergarten, stuck her tongue out at her older brother.
"See?" Andrew flicked the little angel's forehead, "She's acting up since I also just got here."
Rubbing her now reddened forehead, Dream mustered all her strength and threw punches on Andrew's leg even though her hits were far from painful. It took her less than ten seconds to surrender. Realizing she cannot overpower him physically, she turned to Caramel to expose Andrew's secret. "My brother came to pick me up thirty minutes ago!"
"You're four, you don't even know how long thirty minutes actually is," Andrew bickered back, even reaching for her pigtails and flipping them to annoy her more. Every morning, he styles Dream's long, light brown hair into primly smooth braids, buns, or which ever hairstyle she picks out from the internet and begs him to do. And every afternoon when she returns from school, her beautiful, decorous hair transforms into a frenzy of tangles, having played so much in class.
Slapping his hand away from her hair, Dream stuck her bottom lip out. "You came here when the long hand's at number six!" She pointed at the clock hoisted up on one of the chapel's towers. "But it's on number twelve now. That means it's been thirty minutes!"
"I should be disappointed you broke our pinky promise and told on me but I'm actually impressed." Andrew bent down to match her level. "How'd you know that?"
"Cole taught me!" She beamed widely before running towards Cole who has been quiet the entire time, hands clapped against his ears.
As lightning flickered across the sky once more, Cole visibly flinched and covered his ears tighter while he expects for the thunder to follow shortly. Realizing this, Caramel reached for his backpack. He usually carries an old handheld radio and a pair of wired earphones. She noticed long ago that her brother likes listening to music or even to the sound of people casually speaking even if he did not understand what they were saying, just to have a little something to fill the quiet void.
