Barbara the Belonging

Trolls of Friends and Chaos

In the early morning, Jim got up from bed and went to use the bathroom.

Barbara was sound asleep, but not for very long as the alarm woke her up, yawning and stretching.

Everything seemed normal, the only exception was the strange magical transformation she just had last night.

She thought that was a dream at first, until she felt an aura in her bed. 

The woman uncovered the blanket and saw the amulet glowing.

Right.

Talk to Jim about the amulet.

However, she needs to keep the whole transforming into a magical knight part a secret.

Something about this felt strange.

When she heard Jim walk out the bathroom she exited her bedroom, seeing her son walking downstairs.

"Good Morning, Jim." Barbara spoke up.

The boy stopped halfway down the stairs and turned to look up at his mother.

"Oh! Hey mom! I thought you were still sleeping?" Jim nervously smiled, feeling as if he was caught doing something troublesome.

"I was. But I'm awake now. I needed to talk to you."

The mother walked downstairs and the two headed over to the couch.

"Do you mind telling me...where you got this?" Barbara pulls out the amulet and shows it to her son.

Jim's blue eyes widened and kept quiet, with his fingers fidgeting and his foot tapping anxiously.

Then, he took a deep breath.

"Yesterday, Tobes and I were riding to school and we took the canals as a shortcut. Until I stumble across some large pile of rocks and it's where I found that."

The boy pointed at the amulet and Barbara turned the object towards herself and stared at it.

"I swear I didn't steal it! I thought someone threw it away or something.."

The boy felt nervous, as he was sure he would be in trouble.

Then, Barbara looked up at her son.

"It's alright Jim. I just wanted to know where you got this. But I am still keeping this in safe keeping. Alright." The mother softly smiled and kept the amulet in her hand.

"Yeah..I guess. I should get going, I need to get ready for school. Plus, I was thinking of signing up for the school play." Jim walked upstairs to his room to change, his mother spoke up again.

"Oh? Why is that? You never seemed interested in that kind of stuff." Barbara questions and craned her head up as she saw her son upstairs.

"Uhh..I don't know...I just thought. Maybe I could get into some school activities. You know?"

Something within that boy's eyes and awkward smile tells her that there was a reason. But he just doesn't want to say anything about it.

Barbara decided to let it slide and drop the subject, they had to get ready for the day.

Thankfully, her schedule wasn't as bad as it was yesterday.

She was able to leave work a little early.

It was 9:24PM and she was driving home, yawning from exhaustion.

Suddenly, she remembered what Jim said that morning.

She crossed the bridge that led to the neighborhood. But she stopped halfway.