Lena's Light

📸 Helena (5)

I crash onto the couch after a busy day, and it's only 5 PM. After Bible study, I earned some extra money from the neighbors after helping them with daily chores. Then my mom sent me to get groceries. After that, I had my own things to do around the house; Organize my closet, clean my dresser, desk, and general stuff for my bedroom. This included other things, like dishes, laundry, and more. And I'm not done yet. I've been volunteered to cook dinner for the night.

     My phone dings.
Darren: Wanna do something tonight?
Helena: No can do. I've got dinner duty tonight.
Darren: :( So unfair. How about I join then? I'm extremely bored.
Helena: Let me ask my mom.
Darren: K, sounds good.

"Ma!" I call for her.
     She walks into my room, looking agitated. "What?"
     "What if a friend came over for dinner tonight?" Her face lights up nearly immediately. "That would be wonderful! You haven't had anyone over in a while. Besides Nora, of course."
     "Thanks, mama."

Helena: Good news. She said yes.
Darren: Awesome! When should I be there?
Helena: Around 7:30.

✝️

"So he's the one who you invited. Nice kid, for the most part. " My mom comments.
      I tell her, "Actually, he invited himself." Darren gives a guilty smile as he walks in. I watch as he immediately shakes her hand, before pulling a single rose from his back and giving it to her.
     She gladly takes it, "You know how to charm a woman. I see why Hel-" I jab her in the side, giving her a warning stare.
     She just rolls her eyes and continues talking, "I see your mother has raised you well. I like that woman. Actually, I need to catch up with her. I'll put it in my reminders."
     "Mom. Back to the main task, yeah?"     
      She makes a "tsk" sound. "Oh honey, calm down. The food isn't going to run away."

We all eventually sit down and begin eating. No one says a word for about 10 minutes. Darren breaks the silence by saying, "So. If I may ask, where's your dad?"
Mom and I share glances at each other. Darren catches on immediately. "Oh, sorry. A sensitive topic I see."
     I try to assure him. "We're messing with you. He's not dead, out of our lives, or even divorced from mom or anything. He's just usually away from home for work, coming back for the major holidays and birthdays. Right now he's in Orlando."
"That's cool, kinda sad though. What does he do anyway?" he says while taking a bite of chicken.
     "He's a cruise ship chef. It's thanks to him that I know how to cook."
     "And here I was thinking you couldn't be any more interesting."
He turns his attention to my mom. "So, Mrs.Wright, what do you do?"
      "Oh please, call me Rhonda. Or sometime in the future, Mom hopefully." She gives us both a sly wink before going on and I just sigh at her. "But anyways, I work at home, for HP, or Hewlett-Packard, customer service."
     "So I'd assume you were into engineering in your earlier years?"
     "Your assumption would be right. It was my major at Cleveland, I worked in IT for 10 years."
This seems to light up Darren's world. "No way! That's what I was thinking about doing, alongside lacrosse. After college, I might coach kids on how to play in my free time."
      "So you like kids?" I poke her leg from under the table. I know exactly what she's doing and she's enjoying every second of it.      He nods. "Love 'em. If I could foster towards my retirement years, I will. That's if I don't have a bunch of kids and grandkids running around, which I hope I do."
     Mom gives me a knowing look, which basically says "Well look here, that's what you want too."
I add in my own part of this conversation, "Really? That's crazy, that's what I have in mind, too!"
     Darren's smile grows. "That's awesome. Maybe our kids will grow up to be friends." I just nod, smiling. Hmm. Our kids. If only he meant something else by that.
     I hear a snapping sound and look in front of me, only to see Mom snapping her fingers at me. "Oh, sorry. La-la land, rough day. You know how it is." She just nods.
Then Mom asks the important question. "I see you at church sometimes. So you're a believer?"
     Darren nods, "Yeah, although I should probably attend more often. I feel like I'm slacking with the Lord, in terms of my part of the relationship with him."
     I add, "I know what you mean. I feel like I could always do better; especially lately."
She quickly responds, "I've heard a thing or two, yeah." He immediately looks guilty, biting his lip. Gosh, how I wanna pull it away from his teeth, like he does to me sometimes. Nevertheless, I hold back.         He speaks up, "But I swear I'm working on myself. I'm doing a lot better than I was a couple of years back, in terms of my behavior."
     I add in, "I've noticed that for sure."

AUTHOR'S NOTE
HEY! This was fun to write. I LOVE a good comedic chapter. See ya in the next one! (Darren's POV, my fav).