Foresight

Chapter 10

Mike shut the front door behind him. He'd come home from school and whilst his dad was still at work, he had to take care of a few things. Mike hung up his coat and ran upstairs to put his school bag away before coming back downstairs and into the conservatory. Mike grabbed all the wet, clean clothes from the washing machine and sorted them into a pile for the dryer and a pile for the clothes rack. Once he'd placed all the clothes in their designated areas and put the dryer on, he went into the kitchen, he went and put the unbaked steak and ale pie in the oven and set it to cook for half an hour.

Mike studied his surroundings for a moment; the oven was on one end of the room, fitting inside a gap between the kitchen counter which lined one side of the rectangular room in an L-shape. There were cupboards underneath the counter on the right side of the room which contained all the cutlery, crockery and cooking utensils. Opposite that, the fridge-freezer stood with a shelf containing all the spices and dry foods. It was a nice kitchen, if there was ever such a thing. There was no real separation between it and the living room, other than the abrupt change from carpet to tiled flooring.

Having finished his chores, Mike crossed into the living room, sat down onto the sofa and switched the TV on. He browsed through the channels until he found a prehistory channel talking about one of the mass extinction events that happened millennia ago. For some odd reason, he wondered if any of those creatures had any powers like him. It was odd to think that some weird squid-thing seeing the future millions of years ago. If they could it didn't do them much good clearly, they are dead after all Mike thought, rather morbidly. He sat there watching the show, aimlessly trying to just relax. It wasn't working but Mike was too tired to turn the TV off. Besides, pacing the floor wondering about Finn was hardly going to make it better. In fact, Mike shouldn't have even known this anyway – whatever it was, it was Finn's business, not his and he should have just ignored it. But he couldn't. He couldn't relax knowing someone was living with an abusive parent – even if this person had been horrible in the past. And, Mike was not going to forget that Finn, even though he'd tried to beat the crap out of him only moments before, had genuinely apologised for everything he'd done.

"Mike! I'm home!" His dad's voice came from the foyer. Mike got up and went to the door to greet his dad.

"Hey dad, you're back early," Mike replied with smile. His dad took off his coat, hung it up on one of the hangers and took off to the kitchen.

"Yeah, shift ended early – how was school son?" His dad asked as he took a beer out from the fridge.

"It was okay..." Mike trailed off. He wondered if he ought to tell his dad about what happened with Finn. He supposed could ask about the situation in general without being explicit. "Dad what would you do if you knew somebody who you haven't like in past was going through a hard time?" he asked. His dad turned around from the fridge and look at him, confused.

"Why do you ask?" he asked. Damn! Mike thought to himself. He was going to have to be a bit more specific.

"Well... Some guy at school, who I've never really liked, turned out not to be as bad as I thought he was and..." Mike paused for a moment. It really wasn't his place to tell anyone what Finn had going on at home – especially since his dad was with the police – that could make things worse. "I found out that he has some pretty bad stuff going on at home – I feel like I should tell someone about it but I don't know if that'll help or make things worse,". His dad nodded, seeming to understand.

"Well..." His dad began. He thought for a moment before continuing, "You say you've never liked him?" he asked. Mike nodded. "But now you feel sorry for him?". Mike nodded again. His dad scratched his chin – Mike had never changed his feelings about someone he didn't like quite like this before. "I take it that whatever this guy's got going on at home is serious, right?".

"It may be something that'll blow over or it may not – either way, it sucks for him right now," Mike replied. His dad nodded again.

"Okay, in which case," His dad suggested, "try be friendlier with him, you don't have to be friends with him, but it may help him to know that somebody actually cares,". Mike nodded and smiled.

"Thanks Dad, I'll do that," Mike replied. It was some pretty good advice –it wasn't a difficult thing to do nor was it a leave-it-alone sort of thing.

"Well it's nice to see that I raised a decent human being," His dad chuckled as he came and sat down beside his son. Mike smiled at his dad but his eyes flickered with regret – he still hadn't told his dad about his powers. His dad noticed his expression almost immediately. "Are you alright Mike?" he asked, looking at him with concern.

Mike responded, perhaps a little too quickly, "yeah, I am – I'm doing great actually," he said. His dad looked at him with curiosity.

"Oh, I take it today was pretty special then?" his dad asked, very interested in what Mike was saying.

"Well if you call getting a Friday night date to see your favourite classic movie and dinner at your favourite diner with one of the greatest girls in the school, special – then it yes it was!" Mike replied, grinning. His dad looked at him surprised.

"You're going on date? With who?" his dad asked eagerly. Mike was going red now. This was becoming a very embarrassing conversation.

"Stacey Palmer," Mike replied, sheepishly. His dad was not done teasing him.

"Oh, the one you're always gushing about?" his dad taunted. Mike looked at him, seriously embarrassed now but uncontrollably laughing.

"I don't gush about her!" Mike defended, his dad looked at him with a doubtful look, Mike looked away slightly, "at least not always..." he grumbled. His dad just burst out laughing.

"Well good luck son – treat her like a lady though – okay?" His dad said. Mike nodded. His dad got up to leave the room. "And Mike, I know you don't want to hear this, but your grandpa's funeral is tomorrow – I've called your school so they know but make sure you're ready for twelve p.m. tomorrow okay?" his dad called out. Mike looked down as thoughts of his grandpa resurfaced on the edges of his mind.

"Okay dad," Mike replied, absent-mindedly. He got his phone out of his pocket and tapped a text out to Connor: hey pal my Grandpa's funeral is tomorrow which means I'll be trapped with my family for several hours – be prepared to rescue me. He said almost jokingly. He did love his family but whenever his uncle and his dad were in the same room, they generally ended up making a scene somewhere down the line, which was something he did not want to have to deal with on the day of his grandpa's funeral. Mike suddenly tried to focus on the idea of the funeral – trying to get a vision on it. If he could see into the future, he might as well try to see if tomorrow ended badly for him.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. It seemed that trying to force the vision wouldn't make it come. Mike sighed to himself. However it may go, you will just have to keep it together go through with it anyway – either way, that funeral is going to happen he thought to himself.

It's what his Grandpa would want.