Hidden Burdens (working title)

Chapter Ten

Miguel was the first kiddo picked up like yesterday.

The kid happily talked about his day and the fun he had with his friend Hayden.

Kimmy tried to tune him out and think about the farm she needed to make in her game world so she would have endless food to survive the monsters she easily died to. Despite loving video games and playing them all the time, Kimmy wasn't a pro gamer or anything like that. It helped that Stephen's friend, Josh, had an alert for his live streams to point out he too was bad at video games, which taught her to laugh off and not be mean to herself.

They climbed into the truck with the kid still talking. To be fair, Kimmy's mom often called her a "motor mouth." So she couldn't be too annoyed with him.

Kimmy watched the passing scenery through her window as they headed to the next school when a musical sound was heard. She glanced out of the corner of her eye as Ben pulled out his phone to answer it, looking through the back of the seat and the wall of the truck.

"Hey, Mom," he said with the phone to his left ear, holding his arm on the door to lean on and driving with one hand on the steering wheel. "Just making the afternoon rounds... Picking up the kids, Mom," Ben sounded serious that time.

There was a brief pause before he said, "We've been busy. Kids with school. Another pup joined our pack. But I promise to do better."

The phone conversation continued in a calm direction. Ben discussed adult stuff Kimmy didn't understand. She tried to tune him out as she stared out her window, thinking about her game again. But then his tone began to shift from calm, and she heard Ben say something about one of them would only be able to make it while the other stayed home with the kids, briefly raising his voice.

Kimmy stole a peek over at Miguel out of the corner of her eye, who was watching Ben with a look of concern.

She heard Ben take a deep breath as he calmed down again. "That's the best I can do, Mom. Either that or we bring them with us. Those are the only two options," Ben said, sounding the most frustrated he'd been since Kimmy got there.

Shortly after, his shoulders drooped, and he breathed he would talk later. He sincerely said, "Love you," before ending the call, dropping the hand holding the phone. Ben stared ahead at the road, not saying anything else.

After a moment Miguel asked, "Are you okay, Tio?"

Ben glanced up in the rearview mirror to reply, "Yeah, I'm okay, bud. Don't worry about it."

The truck was in silence the rest of the way to Claudia's school. Except for Miguel's music, with apparently a bunch of vegetables singing. Kimmy had seen and heard weirder things, though.

Her brother loved the cartoons made for preschoolers despite being eleven years old. At least Miguel wasn't wanting to listen to that Baby Shark song on repeat. That was Zach's favorite and couldn't go to sleep without someone putting it on for him.

"Shark!" He would cry until it happened and usually their mom wouldn't hear him, especially if she was already asleep. So Kimmy would have to get up and press play on his CD player for him.

Kimmy felt her face burn just thinking about her brother. Not in an angry way. Her face sometimes got warm if she got embarrassed or emotional. Living in a desert state where the temperature outside got up to triple numbers did not help when her face grew warm or hot, and sitting there with the sun on her side felt like she was in an oven as her mind raced with questions of how Zach was doing and where he was.