The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All

Chapter 10 - The Fiftieth Digit

“What do you need?” Zach knew by now that his father’s observations on the speed at which they ate the food in the house were almost always followed by a request to run to the market to get an ingredient or two for dinner.

“Aren’t you considerate.” Jay smiled at Zach’s request as if he hadn’t heard the exasperation in his voice. “And now that you mention it, yes, I could use some broccoli and some firm tofu. We’re having stir fry tonight!”

“Oh and Zach,” Zach stopped on his way out the door waiting for his father to finish, “don’t take too long please. Your mother took your sisters over to walk the Doctor’s dog again, and I want to have dinner going before they get back.”

§

“You’re not coming with us?” Binny said to her mother, her forehead furrowed.

“You guys did great last time, and Henry has a bottle of wine he wants to show me.”

“Wine! Are you getting drunk?” Cassie interrupted loudly.

“We will not be drinking the whole bottle Cassie.” Dr. Huitre said with a wink.

“I guess you’ll just have a good time with An-ree.” Binny muttered this under her breath mimicking the way her mother pronounced Dr. Huitre’s first name. 

Julie and Henry had already turned to analysis and discussion of the label on the bottle and didn’t notice. 

§

Zach had a feeling Zoe and Gabe might be at the park. And sure enough he was rewarded when he saw the big cloud of tight curls swinging back and forth on the swingset.

“Don’t get on that thing.” Zoe said to her brother as he approached the now sunken jungle gym. It had been cordoned off with tape, apparently by some city official, until it could be restored to its rightful height. Zoe wondered what explanation that person had conjured up in their mind for the huge hole underneath the play structure. She was relatively sure it was nothing even close to the truth.

Zach had thought he was over most of the jitters he had felt when talking to Zoe, but as he approached her, the butterflies in his stomach took flight in large numbers. All he could muster was a sheepish “Hey”.

“Hey.” Zoe seemed unsurprised at Zach’s sudden appearance in the park. “Whatcha up to?”

Gabe came over, just slightly out-of-breath. “Hey Zach.” He’d dropped whatever he was doing as soon as he saw Zach.

“My Dad’s daily request that I get ingredients for dinner.” The butterflies were making quite a ruckus at this point.

“What’s for dinner at your house?” Zoe asked.

Dinner. House. Zach knew he recognized those words. He was even pretty sure he knew what they meant. But strung together they just felt kind of foreign. Zach could tell he should say something soon as Zoe’s eyes were widening and her eyebrows rising. But somehow the bigger eyes just made Zach feel more flustered. “I can’t remember.” Was all Zach could muster.

“You can’t remember what you were supposed to get?”

“Zach remembers everything. He said so.” Gabe chimed in.

“Not today apparently.” Zoe said to her brother.

Zach managed to take his eyes off Zoe long enough to collect his thoughts. “Oh no. I am good at remembering stuff. Really good.”

“Uh. OK.” Zoe sounded neither interested nor impressed.

“I can recite Pi.”

“Pie?” Gabe’s grin got large.