Inferno

~136~ On Trial

Ellie's POV

"Eleanor Jane Preston, get your cute tooshie over here"  Taylor yells from the living room.

"What?!?" I ask, coming out of the laundry room.

"What is the meaning of this, young lady?"
He asks me in a stern voice. The room is crowded with my family. Even Liam, Nora, and Savannah are over tonight.

"I don't know what you're talking about" I say, getting flustered. I've been trying to get chores done all evening.

He holds up his hideous mounted fish. Dang it.

"Where did you find that?" I ask innocently.

"In the back of our closet, laying under the maternity clothes you have refused to get rid of all of these years. I just found a bunch of interesting things back there" he says, putting his hands on his hip.

"GRANDPA!" Savannah scolds.

"Oh, I'm sorry Savvy. She actually gets the credit. She was snooping and found them. I convinced Liam not to spank her, because she just did me a huge favor. You told me you had no idea where this was" he says, a little annoyed...A little amused.

I scan the crowd, and everybody is amused. Mason especially. He's never seen us like this before.

I just stare at Taylor.

"I'm waiting, young lady" he says, hiding his smile.

I stomp my foot. "Taylor, that thing is creepy. I was sick of it looking at me all of the time" I pout.

"Did you just stomp your foot at me?" He asks, raising his eyebrows.

I just glare at him. He chuckles and hands the creepy dead fish to Liam, and comes over to me. He slings me over his shoulder and delivers a sharp smack to my upturned butt.

"Ouch, Taylor, put me down ya big lunatic" I say, trying to squirm out of his grasp.

"You just stomped your foot. You know what the rules are for stomping your foot" he says innocently.

I'm still trying to wriggle out of his grasp when he lightly squeezes my butt this time and sets me down.

He crosses his arms and looks at me again, smirking a little.

"I also found my favorite shirt from when I was a teen, one of my signed Kerry Wood bats, which is snapped, and my favorite ratchet set, which is broken. Care to explain?" He asks.

It sucks being on trial with everyone watching.

"Can I at least have a jury before I get prosecuted, judge?" I ask him seriously.

Taylor laughs out loud. "Sure, Emmy, Liam, you be the jury" he says, enjoying himself.

"Ok" I say as I take a deep breath.

"The Kerry Wood bat was an accident. You were on shift about five years ago and I heard a scary noise. I grabbed it out of the closet and went downstairs.
I was still half asleep and I kinda swung it at the couch and snapped it. The couch was giving me attitude though" I say. I'm not enjoying how much he's struggling not to laugh right now. I'm also not enjoying everybody else who is already laughing.

"You snapped it on the couch?" He asks

I nod. "I watched 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' right before bed and, well, you know what scary movies do to me" I say, glaring at him.

He nods, hiding his amusement, and makes his face look angry. "The ratchet set?" He asks.

"There was a really bad clog in the drain once. I accidentally turned on the garbage disposal and mutilated the thing" I say quietly.