The Stuff of Legends, Chapter 3
by Pleasant Dreamer
Chapter 3: The Challenge
I can’t really describe how great it was having Dad back home. There were so many things I wanted to talk to him about, but of course I couldn’t get a word in edgewise over dinner. Truthfully I didn’t even try. Mel was talking a mile a minute about how her soccer team had a chance to make the state finals and how she really liked gymnastics, but couldn’t wait for softball season to start. She was so excited I didn’t want to interrupt her, though realistically I don’t think anything less than an earthquake was going to get that girl to stop talking. She did eventually have to stop long enough to practically shove an entire piece of pizza in her mouth and that’s when I brought up the reason for dad’s visit.
“So how long do you think it will take to find a new nanny?” Really I was only asking because I knew Dad would be booking a return trip to Egypt as soon as he settled on one and I was curious how much time we’d have to spend together. There was an excitement in his voice when he talked about his latest dig that I hadn’t heard in a while. So far all he’d volunteered to share with me was that he was on the trail of something huge. I wasn’t quite sure why he was being so secretive, but I knew better than to ask too many questions about his work.
“New nanny…..what new nanny?” I could barely make out what Mel was saying since she couldn’t be bothered to swallow her food before talking. “What happened to Alice?”
“Alice quit almost a week ago kiddo, you mean to tell me you didn’t notice?”
“Uh-Uh.”
“You see Dad, it’s like I’ve been telling you. I take care of things around here. These nannies you keep hiring are never around anyway.” I had hoped that the sudden realization that one had been gone for days and Mel hadn’t even noticed might be the last little push he needed to finally consider leaving me in charge.
“Let’s not have this conversation again pal. My hands are tied and you know it. Like I’ve said before I don’t doubt for a second that you’re responsible enough to handle things here, but it’s a matter of the law. I can’t just leave two teenagers alone, sooner or later someone would notice and the state would get involved. The last thing I want is to have some clown behind a desk call me from halfway around the world and tell me my children are now living in some state run boarding house. Besides the last thing this family needs is to have the government looking too closely.” I got his meaning loud and clear.
I decided to drop it since I knew he was right and all I could do was argue with emotion and not reason. Dad had taught me a long time ago that only a fool does that. Besides I didn’t want to waste any of the limited time we had together arguing, especially when I knew I couldn’t win. So we’d get another nanny, big whoop. Maybe this one would stay out of my way. I was just about to change the subject when Dad surprised me.
“I posted the ad a few days ago and have already gotten quite a few responses. I’ve set up interviews for Monday. Do you want to take the day off from school to help?”
This was the first time Dad had ever wanted to hear my opinion on who he should hire. I couldn’t tell if this was his way of offering me some sort of peace treaty or if he really wanted to hear my thoughts, but either way I was grateful to finally get a say in the matter. I gladly told him I’d help. Between bites Mel quickly offered her expertise as well and then managed to quickly turn the topic of conversation back to how her team was going to with the soccer finals with ease.
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That night I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened at the restaurant. I was surprised by how unnerved I was by it. There was no denying the Mel was cute, she always had been, but this was the first time I’d ever really noticed boys being attracted to her. How long would it be before she wanted to start dating and how was I going to handle that with Dad always away? It was ridiculous to worry about it, I knew that. Mel was probably the biggest tomboy in her school, and I was confident I had nothing to worry about anytime soon. Still though, something was keeping me awake. I decided to get a snack and maybe surf the web for a bit.
Dad was sitting at the kitchen table looking over some dusty old books he’d pulled from his study when I got to the kitchen.
“Hi Brandon, I’m glad you’re still up. There’s something I wanted to tell you earlier, but I figured it’d be easier to talk when Mel wasn’t around.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“I sent you a little souvenir from my trip and I wanted you take a look at. It should be arriving in the mail any day now.” When he said that he tried to hide his excitement and I couldn’t help but think how much he looked like Mel when he did that. This was a little game Dad liked to play, or more accurately a test he loved giving me. These tests didn’t come about often, but when they did I loved taking them as much as he loved posing them. They were exciting and the rewards for passing were huge.
Occasionally Dad would store artifacts in his study that he unearthed while waiting to line up the right buyer. Typically what he brought home were small objects of no great value compared to his bigger finds. They were things that any layman would look at and see as some cheap souvenir, which is why he referred to them that way. He actually still had a few in his study that he’d yet to sell from his previous dig.
He used these objects to test my knowledge. The truth is I was a lot like Dad and he obviously wanted me to follow in his footsteps. The challenge he put forth was simple, though never easy. All I had to do was gather as much information about the artifacts as possible before the next time he returned. The value of the reward was judged by how much I had been able to learn.
The payoffs from his last two test had been huge and with the money I’d been saving up I thought if I managed to solve this latest riddle I might finally have the money needed to buy the jeep Dad knew I was saving for. I tried to get him to give me some kind of clue, but he refused. He tried hard to hide his grin, but eventually it got away from him. It was obvious that he was even more excited about me trying to pass his challenge as I was. All he would tell me was that this would be without a doubt the hardest challenge he’d ever given me. After that I was way too excited to sleep so I went back to my room and exhausted myself thinking of the cute cheerleader who sat in front of me in history.
>>Chapter 4>>