Basket of Cupcakes

Right now, in her room, was a rude mythical creature that she was furious with, an empty book that she will need to read at Two O’ Clock because nothing can ever just be straight forward when it came to magical things and the promise of not being alone at that designated read time, thanks to her dads over-enthusiastic hope to make things right. Instead, he made things worse. She now had to spend another day with Victoria the nauseating, and this time she was going to be conscious. If that didn’t make her scream in anger, it was definitely the thought of seeing Claire’s face on the weekend. How did her dad manage to get things so terribly wrong trying to do things right?

Oh, how she missed her mum. She threw the plate down, stamped her feet, screamed at the top of her lungs and marched back into her room, slamming the door behind her, leaving Ben utterly dumbfounded. This was the second outburst within twenty-four hours from Kiki which left Ben stupefied. It was at this moment that he missed Ella badly. Why did she leave? He poured himself a scotch, took out their wedding album and started flipping through the glossy pages. Ella seemed happy. The pictures painted the perfect picture of their love. Then one day Ella stepped out and never returned. Their town was small with no sea or major lakes or forests, so the search was short. No struggle of any kind could be found, or a body thankfully. She was listed as a missing person but it was silently whispered amongst the people in the neighbourhood that she had run away. He found it hard to believe but now, as he sat looking at how happy they seemed and how small Kiki was, his hope of her returning turned to anger.

He slammed his glass down and stormed outside with the album in his hand, flung the album as far as he could together with his wedding ring.

It landed near the bench she used to read with Kiki on her lap and disappeared in the long grass. He wiped his tears and went back in to pour himself another glass of scotch. With liquid courage, he started to clean up. The first thing he did was get rid of all the pictures of Ella and himself, keeping only the ones with Ella and Kiki, but strategically angling them so he didn’t have to see Ella’s face.

Everyone started arriving at noon, carrying with them platters and casseroles and desserts. By then Ben was pretty hammered by his liquid courage so his welcome was larger than usual with a shiny grin to mask his emotions.

Victoria was back to fill the air with her nauseating scent. Kiki peeked at the entire scene through her bedroom window, making gagging sounds every time she set her eyes on the stinker known as Victoria. Today, it was not Victoria that was the worst guest on the list, which was a rare occurrence. Every minute that ticked by promised the arrival of Claire. Sure enough, Claire’s father’s powder blue stingray corvette could be heard revving up the lane. It was his weekend car and he never failed to arrive in one of his collectors. Kiki had to admit though; this one looked a bit like a submarine with its split back windows. First of its kind, driven by all Astronauts back in the day he would say. While Ben admired the dark purple interior, Kiki spotted Claire jumping off. And as expected, she was followed by Ashley, Brittany and Regina. Where were Geordie and Ada? Late as usual. They lived across the street. What could be the delay?

“Kiki! Your friends are here!” He yelled adding an unnecessary dose of excitement in his voice. Well, she had to emerge from the depths of her dungeon at some time or the other. Besides, Yori’s snoring was starting to enter her brain cells.

She met Claire in the garden who just had to give her the Claire stare from top to bottom, as if scanning her skeleton, before greeting Kiki with her usual high pitched, insincere ‘Hi’.

Amidst rolling her eyes she caught sight of Claire’s cousin Ethan. He was a senior student and was nothing like Claire. Kiki turned strawberry red and was suddenly aware of her appearance. She was still in her PJ’s. She ran inside and emerged with a pair of black jeans and a grey hoodie, which hid Yori snuggly in her pockets. He shrunk the book into a doll size so he could keep an eye it.

Time was ticking away. Soon it will be the hour of two and they had no plan further than reading. Reading a book shouldn’t be that odd, except these were kids, and everyone knew they will never willingly choose to read over ice cream, cakes and water slides. Ben was busy putting it up for the kids. If only it were as simple as reading a book.

If only at two o clock, a set of clear instructions appeared, all would have been resolved. But it was far from that simple.