flooded in soup, a night in the suburbs

flooded in soup, a night in the suburbs

fiction
edward w pritchard

It was important to my Sister and it was one of those things that I couldn't say no to. Watching her three kids on a Sunday night while her and her friend went to a concert at  a small theater in the city to our North. I would go to the friend's house and stay with my Sister's friend's husband and help watch the kids. They had two children and my Sister three.

We went to basement entertainment room and watched Sunday night NFL football. The children were playing on the floor above us and the two women had left for their concert thirty minutes ago. The husband Herb, told me to just watch the game the children would be fine. My sister's three, 7, 10 and 12, and his 8 and 12. My children were grown but my instincts told me to keep an eye on things.

Herb was difficult to hear. He talked softly and droned on a bit about the utilities industry where he worked. We watched the game and drank a beer, him in his expensive recliner and me on the comfortable couch.

Eventually I went upstairs to check on things. A large two floor split style house with bedrooms on second floor, and living area for the family on the first. The children had emptied maybe twenty games and various toys everywhere. My nephew seven and his friend had torn a lot of posters and things from walls in the kitchen. In the family room, the boxes were strung about everywhere; the Christmas tree was still up, it was August, and the boxes were full of presents  that hadn't been put away. The table in the dinning room was piled with neat piles of books,  magazines, and  the Wife's work supplies; but some of the piles had been neatly moved to the floor so my Sister's daughter ten and Herb's daughter 12 could play monopoly.

Herb was upset that the piles had been moved from the table and that the poster's had been removed from the walls in the kitchen. I worked on putting the game pieces back away and Herb used a stapler to hang the posters back on the walls in the kitchen. The children sat in the upstairs living room quietly and watched a movies on the Net flicks  while we worked.

There was stuff everywhere. I had came in directly to the basement entertainment room with my Sister when we arrived and hadn't seen the mess in the house. Herb's TV room had been straightened for my visit. I was still sorting game pieces when my Sister and Lydia her friend arrived. They had only stayed for half the show but were both in a good mood.

Both women sat at the table and had some flavored coffee for a few minutes before we left. Lydia put the piles of her stuff back on the kitchen table from the floor when she first sat down. Herb told her about the posters in the kitchen. The kids gyrated to the kitchen table to hear about the concert. I kept putting things away until my Sister forced me to go watch the football game again. Just before we left my Sister's husband came by from work. My brother-in-law had gotten off early so I didn't have to drive my Sister home. The kids were all in by the Christmas tree playing with the toys when I left. The two men were in the basement watching the football game and the women were sitting at the table drinking flavored coffee.
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