Eylo began making his way through the kitchen to reach the sliding doors in the back. His dad Ramy was talking to the new veterinarian volunteer, who was playing with a strand of his shoulder-length purple hair, fixated on what Ramy was saying:
"Maybe, just because, my family lives here..." Ramy’s eyes traced the ceiling, his hands fidgeted with the folds of his salwar pants.
He paused to give his answer another moment of thought. Both of the man’s teas were growing cold on the table but they were too lost in thought to notice.
“We just try our best to be what we think all animals deserve, a warm and loving home. So I never thought of calling Belling just a shelter.” Ramy looked back down as he finished his sentence, right in time to catch Eylo as he reached the doors.
“Weebill, can you let Pa know Gran is grabbing dinner for us on her way back from work and should be here in, hmm, like an hour?”
Ramy loved Thai takeout. Pa was a “let's not do takeout and I'll scrape something together with garden veggies” type. But Eylo and Gran’s favorite was pizza. So when it was Gran's turn to pick up dinner, Eylo knew she would be back home with a couple of pies.
Eylo gave Ramy an upbeat two-thumbs-up before sliding open the doors to the yard where his Grandpa was. He stepped out into the crisp evening; the grass crunched under his soles. He took in the view of the barn in the left corner of their large backyard.
Grandpa Aldo was sitting in his usual spot facing the barn and its animals with a glass of tea in his lap. Aldo spent most of his days caring for these animals since his retirement from woodworking. He looked from under his flat cap with warm, droopy eyes as Eylo walked up to him.
“Were you watching the sunset Pa?”
“Ah, I’m just waiting for the stars to reveal themselves Weebill.” Aldo never used the phrase ‘come out’ when talking about stars and instead referred to them as things that reveal themselves when darkness enfolds when they are actually always there with us even when invisible.
Eylo eyed the free stool chair next to Aldo but decided to sit on the cold grass. Eylo’s mom Em would bring Aldo a glass of black tea every evening to sit with him on that chair for hours when she was home. No one else in the family knew what they talked about but they never really asked either. Now that Em was away on a mission, Aldo continued the routine by himself and left the second stool out as a reminder of an absence.
Eylo glanced at the stool again. It felt as though Em was about to come right out of the kitchen and join them, sliding open the doors with her elbow, holding a tray carrying two glasses of tea.
“Dad says we may receive a video from Mom soon,” Eylo frowned. “Like that matters,” he ripped out a patch of grass that had partially dried with the turn of the season.
“I know you miss her,” Aldo said. “But when she comes back, she’ll bring back all these great stories with her from the stars. Stories that make your friends form a circle around you to listen, heh,” he jabbed Eylo in the arm twice. Eylo nodded and forced a gap-toothed grin.
“Now tell me, has our brave Detective Who-What-When-Where-Why-How solved any new mysteries?”
“No-o, nothing new. I know Dad was the one to spill the tea onto the hallway wall. I covered the stain by drawing on the wall.” Eylo said with pride.
“Oh and how do you know it wasn’t me but your dad?” Aldo gave him a playful smile.
“The wall was sticky, which means the tea had sugar in it. And I know Dad loves his tea with two sugars but you say it’s bad for your blood or something, and you never use it… Also, I overheard Dad telling you about it,” Eylo laughed.
“Smart beyond your years, like your Mom,” Aldo ruffled Eylo’s hair.
"There is one thing I can’t figure out though, the …” Eylo was cut off by a loud bang. “What was that?”
“Hmm?” Aldo looked at Eylo unconcerned.
“I think it came from inside the house.”
"What did?" Aldo did not know what Eylo was talking about, his hearing not matching a young mere 8-year-old’s.
"A loud noise, a bang Pa. Are you and Dad behind this one too? Yes. No? It came from, I think, I’m not..."
“You mean the house that's filled with animals and volunteers coming in and out all the time?" Aldo cackled and slurped his black tea that had been brewed to a bitter crimson. "Maybe another mystery for our Detective Who,” Grandpa Aldo teased as he started tickling Eylo.
“Sto-op, I, can’t, really—” Eylo was laughing for real this time. “So is this like another one of your mysteries for me?”
“Oh no Pa, I forgot,” Eylo slapped his cheeks with his palms and jumped up.
“What did you forget about Weebill?”
“We need to close up the barn, Gran will be home soon with dinner.”
“Oh it’s alright, I’ll tell them I had one last story to tell Agatha.” The calf tilted her head at Aldo expectantly.
“And we can say I was teaching Marty McFly a new trick!”
“Oh, Marty McFly already knows one too many tricks. Today he figured out how to open two of the four latches on that food container.” Eylo’s eyes grew watching the piglet who was still trying to get into the container, and he was getting close.
Eylo helped place Pa’s pear-shaped tea glass into its saucer as Aldo turned around to pick up the stools.
The grandpa-grandson duo started leading the animals into the barn. A gentle night light came in from the skylight, casting a cozy feel inside. Aldo and Eylo made sure the animals were all comfortable, well-fed, and had water. By the time they were locking up, the lamb brothers were already snoring in a symphony.
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