Chapter 3
Lucille climbed the stairs she'd climbed countless times before, and admired the photographs that climbed the wall. She'd seen them time and time again, but she loved looking at them and could never grow tired of it. Every night, she went to bed with a happy memory fresh in her mind. As she reached the top of the stairs, she looked out of the window; the few trees surrounding the house were shaking violently in the wind. She watched as lightening off in the far distance cracked the sky in half, and lit up the surrounding farmland. She frowned with the knowledge that it was a far too frequent occurrence for freak weather to appear. She smiled when she heard a set of feet scurrying up the stairs; she looked round and saw Gordon jet past her,
"Slow down sweetheart!"
Gordon had turned the corner too quickly to respond and was gone in seconds. Lucille laughed to herself as she began to climb a second set of stairs, leading up into the attic space. She came across three doors; one was the bathroom, one was Scott's room and the other was John's. She looked at all three of them as the lights dimmed slightly and decided to knock on Scott's door first. She received no answer. She tried again,
"Scott? Can I come in?"
Still with no answer, she slowly opened the door to a darkened room and wasn't surprised to see off in the corner where Scott's desk sat, a small spot light being projected at a dismantled part of an engine. She wondered over and placed the sharper tools back into the tool box. After which her attention was drawn to a subtle snore. She looked down at Scott's beanbag and saw him curled up on it,
"Sweetie, wake up" Lucille gently shook him awake,
"Hmmm?" Scott drearily moaned,
"Sweetie, time to make our way to the bed"
With his eyes still closed, Scott dragged his body to his bed. Even stepping over items strewn across the floor, he reached the bed without tripping, until he gave into gravity and fell into his covers. Lucille laughed lightly and manoeuvred the ten year old more into the bed. Once she was happy she kissed him on the head and went to turn out the spot light,
"Love you Mum" Scott whispered before sinking into a deep sleep,
"I love you too sweetie" Lucille smiled and drifted off towards the door.
She was so pleased to have such a well behaved son like Scott; she would've been lost without him. He was always a big help in looking after his siblings and was always good at solving differences between them all. He was a gem to have. Lucille turned to John's bedroom door and wasn't expecting anything quite as easy. She knocked on the door, and received no answer. She sighed and knocked a little harder,
"Johnny?"
"Yeah?" a hushed voice came from the other side of the door.
Lucille took a moment and listened to the wind outside growing in strength. She entered John's room and was always stunned as to what she saw. The room was lit with a thousand specks of light being generated by a planetarium. She watched as the constellations rotated slowly against the slanting walls and ceiling. As she walked further into the room, parts of telescopes and electricals lay everywhere and towards the end of the room a large skylight exposed the night sky. She looked to the bed to see John sat reading an atlas of the solar system,
"Johnny?"
"Yes Mum?" John looked up,
"Why aren't you looking at space?" She pointed to the telescope sat under the skylight,
"It's too cloudy, I think a storm's coming" John nodded.
Lucille looked out the skylight and noticed the rain droplets on the window panel. Her concern grew as the wind continued to howl outside. She turned and smiled at John and sat next to him,
"What was with the outbreak earlier sweetheart?"
John turned away slightly, not wanting to respond,
"Johnny? You can tell me, I promise I won't get angry; you've just been acting very differently lately"
"It isn't my fault" John calmly expressed, "Virgil is the one who is acting out, I spend a couple of days with Scott and he acts all weird. I don't want to be with him if he's gunna be like that"
"Well, Virgil is still young and doesn't really understand. He's just a little jealous"
"Jealous?" John questioned,
"Virgil's just wants to be like you. He just wants to apart of it all"
Lucille sighed not knowing what to suggest. So she sat back with John and cuddled him,
"You know, in a few years you'll want complete rid of your brother's; so don't push them away now. Enjoy being with them, because when your all grown-up you're going to be married with a family-"
"Ewww!" John suddenly exclaimed, followed by a squeak of laughter as Lucille tickled her second eldest,
"Don't leave him out sweetie" Lucille pleaded,
"Ok Mum, I'm sorry. I'll go say sorry to him now"
John quickly hoped off the bed and ran out through the door. Lucille sat tight for a while listening to the weather outside as rain began to hammer down on the skylight. She knew it was going to be a hard night, and the likely hood of John sleeping in Scott's room was high as John had never been able to sleep through thunderstorms by himself.
