The Witch and the Robot (ABANDONED STORY)

Chapter 2 - The Father

Her father would bite into his burger as he began looking over Alice's homework, squinting his eyes a little as he tried to understand some of it. "I don't know what they're teaching in schools these days. I don't understand half of this." Her father, Alan, said seriously with a sigh as he finished chewing, but he would give his daughter a smile after. "As far as I'm concerned, you did it at least. Good job kiddo." Alan chuckled and took another bite, looking Alice over. He noticed that her mind seemed to be elsewhere at the moment, and he would reach over and place a hand on her shoulder, furrowing his brows together with concern. "Hey, everything alright? You're pretty distracted. Usually, you'd be chatting up a storm about your day." Alan asked. Alice was indeed distracted, staring off out the window as she ate slowly, but she would smile and shake her head to her father as she finished chewing her food.

"Sorry, I just noticed something weird with a kid at school today, and I've been thinking about it a bunch. It doesn't help with the card I pulled before you came home." Alice explained her mood calmly. Thinking about Jack's nervousness at work but not at school made her think about what could make him so anxious in one place but not the other. Alice's father would simply raise an eyebrow as he took another bite of his burger, indicating that he wanted to hear more about what was bothering her. "Well, he had perfectly normal energy when I ran into him chasing some papers that the wind blew out of my hands when a student bumped into me." Alice explained. Though she didn't get to finish before her father began speaking.

Alan swallowed just before Alice was done and responded a bit too early when she had simply paused in her explanation. "A boy, huh? You trying to tell me you've got a boyfriend now?" Alan would chuckle, joking around a bit to try and see his daughter smile, though she would simply frown at being interrupted and sigh a bit, eating a french fry so that her father could wallow in awkwardness for a moment.

"No," Alice stated before continuing with her explanation. "But, when I encountered him at the K.O. burger, and he was filling our orders, he was super anxious and on edge. I don't know why he felt like that at work but not at school. I'm just thinking about what it could be, so I might be able to help him if I can." Alice finished her first explanation, pausing to eat more of her fries and grab the ketchup from the fridge for both of them. "As for the card I pulled," Alice began, looking back to her father as she sat down again, handing him the ketchup. "I pulled the death card. It's not what you initially think. The death card doesn't mean anyone is going to die or anything, just that there is going to be a big change, the death of old habits or old ways, and the birth of something new and better, usually." Alice finished, though Alan looked more confused than before and worried about what it could mean for them.

Alice's father would finish the food in his mouth before setting the burger down, Alice's readings had been right before concerning this card, and he remembered all too well the struggles that came with it last time. "Are we going to have to dip into savings again to get by?" Alan asked, as the last big change that she was warned about, he had lost one of his jobs, and they had to exhaust what little savings they had while he looked for a new one, though in the end, he got a much better and more understanding second job.

Alice would shrug and swallow what she had been chewing. The two of them had almost finished dinner amidst the conversation. "I don't know what it's concerning, I didn't get a chance to clarify the card, and it's too late now. But I'm sure it will all turn out okay. It always does in the end." Alice explained, trying to bring her now anxious father some calm. She would make sure everything was going to be okay, even if she had to find a job to do on top of her tarot readings and school.

Alan simply nodded in response, taking a deep breath as he finished his burger and began downing his fries. "I have an early shift tomorrow, so I have to get to bed as soon as possible. As always, it's good to hear that you're doing alright, kiddo." Alan said simply with a smile before he got up and tossed out his trash, walking to his room and closing the door to try and get some sleep for his early shift, leaving Alice to clean up the house a bit in peace. It was usually just her at home, so the messes made were primarily hers anyway.

Alice put in some headphones and plugged them into her phone so that she could listen to music while she cleaned. She started by sweeping the hardwood floors before mopping them, and rather than vacuuming while her father was trying to sleep, she would take the rugs out to the back porch and clean them the old-fashioned way, by shaking them out and then beating them with a stick of sorts. It was harder, sure, but her father worked hard enough for their survival that she could deal with doing a couple of things the hard way in regards to cleaning. When she was done, however, Alice would go to her room and meditate a while before she decided to go to bed, wondering how Jack was doing and if he had finally found safety from that anxious feeling.

Jack had not. He had not seen Arcee since she dropped him off at work and told him that he needed to be keeping up appearances if they weren't to be discovered. He knew she was in the garage before he had gone to bed, as his mother didn't cause some kind of stink when she got home about Jack not being home so late at night. She worked hard, but sometimes she just annoyed him to no end, though what kind of parent would she be if she didn't annoy her child a little by protecting them? Jack had been anxious the whole time that he was at work, and while he was getting over it now, knowing that Arcee was in the garage or thought she was, it was still bothering him a little.