Please enjoy the first chapter..read and review. Thanks.
MORGAN
I walked down the stairs slowly, taking in the scene around me. Bo was with Uncle Merrill on the floor, their backs against the couch as they played connect four. Bo put in her last red chip to make a sequence and squealed in delight as she won. Uncle Merrill joined in the laughter. I smiled to himself. I loved seeing everyone happy. My hand graced the end of the banister and I turned to go into the kitchen. As I got closer, I could heard my dad singing to the radio, softly, and I remembered this as something he used to do when mom was still alive. It was an old tune he sang to, nothing new. But it sounded amazing. He was cooking pancakes, raspberry to be exact. I smelled it the second I had started to walk down the stairs.
"Good morning." Dad said , dishrag on shoulder, as he gracefully maneuvered around the kitchen. He continued, without missing a beat it seemed, with his song. I took a seat at the set table, enjoying what I was seeing. It did seem a little too corny, but it was leaving me with a feeling inside of me that I couldn't quite explain just right. I was happy, yet it didn't seem real. It had only been a month. And it was hard to realize that things would never really be the same again. Yes, dad was back at the church, Uncle Merrill was working at the gas station, and Bo and I were done with school. But things didn't seem like they would get into any type of routine anytime soon.
It was the first summer Sunday, and although things seemed too good to be true, I was going to embrace the day. My dad came over to me, still singing, and placed a pancake onto the plate in front of me. I smiled at him and as he continued singing, he smiled back. Bo and Uncle Merrill came into the kitchen, both taking seats across the table. "Daddy, I won all four games!" Bo sang happily.
"That's wonderful Bo." He said. He had stopped singing, but he was still smiling. He took three glasses from the cupboard and filled them with water. He compulsively line them up in front of her.
"I didn't even let her win! That girl keeps getting smarter and smarter. She's a very observant person." Merrill took a napkin from the stack at the middle of the table and placed it near his plate.
"What's observant?" Bo asked. We all laughed.
"It means you notice things other people don't notice. You might look at a picture and see things no one else really sees. The things are there, but the other people just don't see them." I tried to explain it to her in simplest terms. She sat for a second, made a face, and nodded that she understood. Dad went back to the stove and started to whistle to the next tune on the radio.
Bo reached for a glass of water with both hands, and took a quick sip. She placed it on the table and wiped her mouth with her arm. I watched her as she went for more water from the same glass. So did Uncle Merrill. Dad had turned around to give her a pancake and was unaware of what was happening. He continued to whistle. Uncle Merrill and me just looked at each other and as dad went to give Uncle Merrill his pancake, he stopped whistling.
"What's wrong?" He looked at us concerned.
"Nothing." I said, and I took a slice of butter and spread it around my pancake. Dad went back to whistling, and continued to make more pancakes. I eyed Bo the entire time, and noticed how after a while she moved right on to the next glass.
"Daddy, I'm done with this glass." She said proudly, pointing to it. Dad had just sat down with his pancakes. He looked at her as she grabbed the next glass and began to drink. She put the glass down and licked her lips. We all looked at her. My dad took a sip from his water. I took one from mine, and Uncle Merrill followed suit. The water tasted like it always had. But then why did each glass taste fine to Bo..
"Bo, does the water taste funny to you?" Dad said. He looked at her funny.
"No, it tastes fine." She grabbed the glass again and took a long sip.
"Can you take a sip of the third glass and tell me how it tastes?" I didn't quite know what dad was doing. Obviously Bo didn't think the water tasted funny. I mean, she usually she came up with random excuses, all meaning the same thing. She picked up the glass and took a sip.
"It tastes fine, just like the other two." She continued her meal like nothing was happening, and speared one of the last pieces of pancake on her plate with her fork and placed it into her mouth. Things seemed to be returning to a normal I had never known. Since when does Bo not go crazy over her water? Little did I know that that was not the only thing that was about to change.