It's Family Business

Chapter 22: Double strapping's what the cool kids do

Chapter 22|Double strapping's what the cool kids do

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   "Heidi, honey, wake up," a voice whispered frantically in my ear.

   At first I thought it was a very loud fly and lazily swatted it away, but then the same fly started repeating my name a little louder until I realized it was definitely not a very loud fly and flies don't talk. Then when I went to swat it away a second time my palm met skin, and my fingers almost poked out my mother's eyeballs.

   "Heidi!" I jumped up in a fright.

   "Mum," I screamed, then panicked. "Am I late again? Crap!"

   I felt flustered, my face flooded with colour. Fun fact: I was always hot in bed...not like that...I think. I mean like sticky hot, okay I'm going to stop now, that sounds worse.

   I glanced at the clock. "Uh, mum, school doesn't start for another four hours. You okay?"

   "Mum?" I asked again, acutely confused and dazed as both my parents ran around my room, haphazardly throwing my stuff everywhere. Was this what a mid-life crisis looked like?

   I kept darting my eyes around the room, to my dad rummaging through a floorboard that was open, pulling out what looked like passports and a gun? A GUN?! A fucking gun?! In my bedroom?!! All this time!

   I couldn't even process the words, nothing came out of my mouth except for a sound that Fallie would make when she accidentally fell down the stairs. I couldn't make sense of anything as mum stuffed my clothes into a big rucksack by the foot of my bed, telling my dad they had nine minutes left before they got here.

   Before who got here? My question got swallowed back when dad started turning a dial on his watch and it made a sort of beeping sound and then my parents just sort of froze for a second and stared at each other. I mean were they having a...thing? Like a romantic thing, in my room? Because that would super weird and very untimely.

   "What the bloody hell is going on?" I spoke with a smile. If my parents had suspicions that I was a psychopath before, well the calm smile on my face definitely confirmed it now.

   Instead of answering the question mum hurled me out of bed, pulled an oversized bright red hoodie over my head which totally did not match my purple dinosaur nighty trousers, kept a firm grip on my shoulders, looked me right in the soul as she said. "You're father and I are going to flee the country."

   Maybe it was the short amount of sleep I was surviving on, or the fact that it was three something in the morning. But the first thing I did was laugh. I laughed at my mothers worry stricken face and I knew she thought I had gone insane.

   I mean for a second I doubt I hadn't.

   "Flee the country- what is this? Is this a joke or something? Is John Quiñones gonna jump out from my cupboard with a camera and start laughing in my face?" I spoke, still laughing.

   Mum shook me slightly and I thought something in me moved in the wrong place. Probably my brain. Or my stomach, right now it felt like it was in my right breast.

   "I'm serious Heidi. This is real. Everything about this is real. Your dad and I - we need to get out of here."

   I gulped. I knew I was being silly. I knew that when my dad pulled out two passports and a hand gun from a secret compartment in my floor that nothing about this was funny. I'm still mad I didn't even know I had a freaking gun stashed under my feet this whole time. Imagine all the role-play I could've done with it.