Children of the Egyxos Fairy

A Close Encounter

Mother: Steven! Can you help me with the chores please?!

Steven: Coming!

Mother: Can you please pick up any big bits of rubbish that you see on the ground, and I will vacuum the floor once you're done.

Steven: I'll get right to it

Mother: Thank-you

~ ~ ~

Honestly, I don't the point of doing chores around the house. It's a pointless waits of time and it's called manual labour. Where's the fun in cleaning?

Smoky: You could learn a thing or two from cleaning the palace, instead of saying such random stuff about your mother and her cleaning habits to yourself in front of the crystal ball.

June: Like you know what you're talking about

Smoky: I know more than you think, June.

June: Let's make a deal. Whoever cleans the palace and gets here faster, the loser has to do anything that the winner says. What do you say?

Smoky: You are so on!

June: . . . Go!

~ ~ ~

Steven: Finished!

Cleo: Thank-you, Steven. Have you seen your father at all today?

Steven: No, why? Have you?

Cleo: Not at all. Not to stress then, let's get this house tidy!

Steven: Yeah!

As Steven and I were cleaning the house, sounds could be heard coming from outside of the lounge room window.

'Strange'

Steven: Mother . . . there's a strange man outside. What do we do?

Cleo: What did you say?

Steven pointed at the window and what I saw in front of me . . . it wasn't the best thing I'd seen in my thirty-five years of living. I pulled Steven up the stairs with me and locked him in the bedroom behind me.

Cleo: Don't make a peep, Steven. Okay?

He didn't say a word and I took that as a yes when I went back down the stairs. I see the man still at the window and waving at me, so I ran back upstairs and called the police. They came in no time flat and as it turns out, the man had broken out of a mental help institution several towns over and he had had the house before my father had purchased it.

'I don't need to sleep tonight'

No sooner had the police finished talking with me, Anubi ran up to me and hugged me.

Anubi: Are you okay? Are you hurt? How's Steven?

Cleo: I'm doing just fine and it will be a miracle if a get any sleep for the next few days.

Anubi: How's Steven?

Cleo: He's up in our bedroom and I put him in there as soon as I saw the man at the window.

Anubi: Why didn't you engage him?

Cleo: Why would I do such a thing? I didn't know what weapons he had on him, and I wasn't going to risk my life to be killed. You should be glad I called the police.

Things went silent after that and once everything with the police was sorted out, we went back into the house and unlocked the bedroom door for Steven. When he came out of the room, I could tell he had been crying.

Cleo: What's wrong, Steven?

Steven: I was scared about you and Dad. Is it normal to be scared about your parents?

Anubi: Everything's okay now, Steven.

Cleo: And it's okay to be scared about us, I was more afraid of what would happen to you.

Steven: Why?

Cleo: I'm your mother, and I'm supposed to be worried about you. I'm sure you may feel this way, one day.

Steven: Why?

Anubi: If you ever have kids of your own, you will understand what your mother means.

I hope for the love of Ra that he doesn't have to feel this way . . . ever. The fact that you have to raise and look after children of your own is hard enough, let alone know if your being a good parent.

~ ~ ~

When we came back to Egyxos after a while, things with the side-effects of the staff have already passed.

Anubi: The Golden City is looking better already.

Kefer: You've got that right, Anubi. How is everything on earth? Anything new?

Anubi: Well . . .

Exaton: Spit it out old friend, we want to know what's being going on.

I saw my wife and child below us and gave each other a wave. I guess there's no harm in telling them about recent events.

Anubi: . . . We almost had a break-in a few days ago and Cleo has barely gotten any sleep because of it. I'm starting to get worried about her because she has been having nightmares about the event.

Exaton: Has she told you about these dreams?

Anubi: She has only told me a handful of them, and they all seem to follow the same chain of events. Only this time, it was what would've happened if the man had broken in.