Chapter Fifteen
Hoshi woke up the next morning. He found himself laying on his mother's bed. "what the?" He looked around. Sarah was on her computer. "good morning sleeping beauty." She mused. She closed out of her word document. "how did I end up here?" he asked rubbing his eyes. "I think the answer your looking for is in your question." She replied closing her laptop. He tossed the blankets back. "speaking of mom, where is she?" Sarah pushed her laptop into her bag. "she went to take James to work. That leaves you and me to go get breakfast." She grabbed her clothes out of the dresser. "I'm going to get changed in the bathroom. You can get changed out here." Hoshi nodded climbing out of bed. He went looking through his bag. He pulled out a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. He got changed into them. He waited for his sister to finish getting ready. She walked out of the bathroom. "I think mom put the spare key on the dresser." Hoshi tapped his pocket. "I got it. Let's go." He opened the door for his sister. Sarah slung her laptop bag over her shoulder as she walked out of the room. Hoshi locked up the door behind them. Sarah quieted her movement to avoid waking anyone up. Hoshi just stared at her. "you know you don't need to move around like that, right?" Sarah looked at him. "I'm just being considerate." He chuckled. "you are being weird. Stop that. Just walk." He strutted right on past her. He had a bit of gangster walk going on as he did so. He turned around to face her. "see? Walking isn't that hard." Sarah shook her head. She followed after him. Hoshi waited down near the elevator for her. He was messing around on his phone while he waited. "glad you finally showed up." He tucked his phone back into his pocket. "I would have been here sooner if you hadn't of given me a walking tutorial." She scoffed. Hoshi cracked his signature grin. "I was only doing my brotherly duty." He punched the "down" button on the elevator. "brotherly duty my ass." She slapped him across the shoulder. The elevator finally reached their floor. The doors opened to let them in. Sarah strutted past Hoshi while he was distracted. She smirked at him. She kept her hand hovered over the button used to close the door. "it's not that hard." She repeated in a mocking tone. Hoshi looked up. "Hey!" Sarah closed the doors on him, chuckling. She opened the doors back up. Hoshi walked onto the elevator. "Not funny!" he spat. Sarah leaned against him. "I'm just doing my "sisterly duty." "She made air quotes with her fingers. Hoshi huffed softly under his breath.
The elevator opened on the bottom floor. Sarah stepped off the elevator first. Hoshi checked his phone one last time. "mom is on her way back to the hotel. I think she'll be joining us for breakfast." He stuck his phone back on his belt. He turned the volume up on his phone. "did you want to wait for her?" he asked. Sarah nodded. "yeah. We might as well." The both of them sat down in the lobby. Sarah logged into the WIFI on her laptop. "what fucked up article do they have you writing now?" questioned Hoshi. "I'm looking at the news. I have to keep up with what's happening overseas." He glanced up at her. "why though?" Sarah sighed moving her hands away from the keyboard. "you know why Hoshi. I'm going over there once the festival is over." Hoshi sighed. "I really wished you didn't. That place is a warzone right now." Sarah held her arm. "I know. Mom has said the exact same thing. I have to go. It's a part of my job." Hoshi got up. "No, it's not. It's not your job. You shouldn't have to go to a warzone just so you can do a web article. Losing your life is not worth a fucking job where you have to lie about what's going on!" He punched the pole next to him. "it's fucking shitheads like that who cause half of the fucking wars we have to fight in." He snapped. Sarah noticed people were beginning to stare. She quickly yanked her brother off to a private area. "look just calm down okay? You'll end up having to go back to the hospital if you keep doing that." She whispered. He sighed. He unclenched his fist letting the dry wall dust fall onto the carpet. He looked up to see someone trying to steal his sister's laptop. "Hey!" he yelled. The thief quickly yanked it off the table. He made off with it. Hoshi took off after him. The thief tried to lose him down an alleyway but that didn't work. Hoshi scaled the wall after him. He grabbed the man by the ankle dragging him down. He gave the man a solid punch in the face breaking his nose. He yanked his sister's laptop away from him. He began cussing the man out in Russian. "Mat', ublyudok, yesli ya poymayu tebya snova na krazhe u moyey sestry" The man got up from his feet. "I'm sorry. It's yours." The man ran off.
Hoshi returned to the hotel. He handed Sarah her laptop back. "don't leave your shit unattended." He muttered. Sarah hugged him. "thank you." Hoshi hugged her back. Hoshi sat back down in the lobby. He began to play a game on his phone. Bronwyn walked on her kids sitting together. "good morning you two." She greeted them. "hey mom." Sarah got up and hugged her mom. Hoshi huffed a soft greeting. He placed his phone on his belt as he stood up. "sorry to keep you waiting. I had to take care of your brother this morning." Hoshi held up his hand. "it's fine. Family comes first." Bronwyn noticed the tone of Hoshi's voice changed. She looked at Sarah with a raised eyebrow. "he had to chase a guy halfway down the block. The jackass stole my laptop." Bronwyn slapped Sarah lightly upside the head. "ow!" "language!" scolded Bronwyn. "your brother, James is the only one that doesn't cuss around me." Hoshi giggled lightly. He had a joke that he was going to keep to himself. Breakfast was being served in the dining room. They had a variety of breakfast items in the buffet. Sarah grabbed a couple of muffins from the desert table. She got herself a glass of orange juice. Hoshi had loaded up his plate with all sorts of things. Sarah shook her head at him. "why do you have so much food?" He shrugged. "why not? It's free." He countered. He placed his plate down at their table. He began eating some of the eggs on his plate. "so what do you guys have planned today?" asked Bronwyn. Hoshi laid his fork down. "Elvis and I are going down to the beach today for a performance. He suggested that we get as many gigs as possible while we're here." He went back to eating his breakfast. "I'll be keeping track of today's events." Replied Sarah. She tapped her laptop gently. Bronwyn nodded. "It sounds like all of my kids are busy." She commented. Hoshi tried to talk to her but his mouth was full of food. Sarah punched him lightly on the shoulder. "swallow then talk you dork!" Hoshi gulped down whatever was in his mouth. He let some of it hang on his tongue. He stuck his tongue out at his sister who saw it. She punched him again. "asshole!" Bronwyn sighed. "language!"
James tapped his pen on the side of his clipboard. He watched people walk back and forth on the sidewalk in front of him. He waited for the bus to come back. Ellie leaned forward in her chair. "I really should of thought of some way to keep us entertained." She laid her head on the table. James giggled softly. "sometimes the thought of having to entertain yourself escapes when you want to help others." Ellie ruffled James' hair. "you sound exactly like your Uncle sometimes. I wonder if you two are secretly the same person in disguise." The bus that they were waiting on finally arrived. The passengers showed their maps to Aria. She smiled. "Team four and Team one got the route correct. Congrats." She took their maps from them. She handed out prizes to the winners. The other passengers dropped donations into the jar on the table. Ellie fished them out and placed them into a dark green metal box for safe keeping. She tucked the metal box under the booth laying her feet on top of it. "I heard that this neighborhood is a little questionable." She explained before James could even ask. James just shrugged. "that makes sense." Ellie checked the time on her phone. "if you want to take your break now, James you can." James unlocked his wheelchair. "if you're sure Ellie. I'm going to head down to one of the nearby restaurants. Just give me a call if you need me to come back early." Ellie gave him a thumbs' up. James rolled away from her. There was a small restaurant about thirty feet from the bus stop. James sat outside to enjoy the view. He also kept the booth within view. He took a sip of his tea. He sighed to himself. Penny was still in her hotel room. Her condition bugged him an awful lot. He sighed quietly. "what am I going to do with her?" he wondered. He sat his cup down on the table. The server came out with his lunch. "here you go." She sat a plate of Fish and Chips down in front of him. James smiled kindly thanking her. He began to eat his lunch while he checked his phone.
The day soon filtered into night. James and Ellie packed up the booth when the last bus left. James headed back to Penny's hotel room. He knocked on the door quietly. Penny got up from her bed. She let James into her room. "how did today go?" she asked as she made tea for the both of them. "well I think. We did get a fair number of donations." Penny nodded. "are you going to be staying here tonight then?" James smiled. "that's the idea. My mom was saying that there really isn't much room in their hotel room right now." Penny sat at the table with James. She looked really tired. "did you get any sleep at all?" questioned James. "some. Not a lot. I had a really wicked headache that kept me up most of the day." James checked the small bag he had attached to his wheelchair. He fished a small bottle of pills out of it. He handed it to her. "here. Take these. They're my pain medications but they should help you." Penny checked the label on the bottle. "only take one." Cautioned James. "if you take more than one, you will suffer from hallucinations or worse." Penny shook out a tablet from the bottle. She used her tea to wash it down. "I called my sister, Finley, today. She really wants to meet you." James nodded. "I wouldn't mind meeting some of your folks once the festival is over." Penny gritted her teeth. "well-we may have one problem. My sister will be here tomorrow. She didn't even give me a chance to ask her to wait." James giggled uncomfortably. "oh dear." James settled down in bed with Penny. He held her close to his chest. Penny laid her head down on his chest. "good night Penny." Penny yawned. "good night James."
James woke up the next morning to an urgent phone call from Ellie.
Ellie: James? I think the van was ransacked last night.
James: what?! Was anything stolen?!
Ellie: yeah…The green box that had all of our donations in it was taken last night.