Room 317

Remembering

As he pulled up the handbrake and turned the engine off, Liam glanced over at Jamie and smiled in thinly veiled amusement, “Are you ready for this?”

Jamie took in a deep breath and then nodded, more like he was trying to convince himself than Liam. “Yeah,” he said, “I think so… Just… protect me from them… please?” He looked at Liam pleadingly.

Liam just chuckled and reached out to pat his knee genially, “Trust me Jay, they’re mostly all talk and no action. It’ll be fine.” He glanced over at the familiar front door, “Come on, let’s go inside - wouldn’t do to be late, after all.”

They opened their respective car doors and stepped out onto the tidy driveway. It was a beautiful June evening; sunny, almost breeze-free and alive with the excited trilling of birds. They truly couldn’t have asked for better weather for the night’s events.

As they rounded the front of the Mercedes, heading up towards the front door, Liam put a hand on Jamie’s shoulder, “you got everything you need?” he checked quietly, his subtle meaning all too clear.

Jamie blushed brilliantly red and shrugged his hand off, “Dad,” he whined, then added, quieter, “um… yeah.”

“Good,” Liam replied, “just… don’t tell them.”

Jamie stopped and stared at him incredulously, “are you crazy?”

Liam just laughed and pushed him forward again. As they walked, Jamie’s pace got slower and slower – increasing dreading what he was about to face. Still chuckling, Liam fell back a step and directed his son forwards up the porch steps and through the unlocked front door.

“Hello?!” He called out into the sprawling household.

“Hi, Uncle Liam!” replied Ryan cheerfully a second later, as he wandered out from the living room with his guitar in hand. Ryan turned to Jamie and smiled toothily, “Hi Jay, you look smart, all set for tonight?”

“Yeah thanks,” Jamie replied nervously, tugging at his collar.

Grinning, Jamie twisted around and shouted, “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! That’s Liam and Jamie here!”

“We’re in the kitchen!” Harry called back.

Ryan nodded at them and headed back into the living room. Liam started to walk towards the kitchen but then stopped, retraced his steps, and grabbed Jamie’s arm, pulling him along behind him. Poor Jamie followed with an expression like it was his last walk before the gallows.

As they entered the bright airy kitchen, they saw Harry was perched on the table, spoon feeding Seth something bright orange and gloopy. Well, ‘feeding’ might be a bit of an over-zealous description as Seth seemed to be wearing half of it. Whether or not he liked what he was eating, the toddler, as usual, was babbling and giggling away between mouthfuls. In the highchair next to him, Ella was gumming a rather soggy biscuit and dribbling happily. Her eyes lit up when she saw the visitors and reached out to Liam, “abddabbabbbah!” she shouted and then squealed excitedly.

Liam grinned and swooped down to press a kiss to the top of her head – making sure to keep well out of range of her messy hands. “Hi sweetheart, what have you got there?”

“Appah!” she babbled back, offering him the drool-drenched custard cream.

“No, no thank you darling,” Liam replied quickly, with a small grimace, “you eat it!”

“Aww Ella,” Harry chuckled quietly, “does Uncle Liam not want your soggy biscuit? How rude of him.” Then he looked casually over at Jamie, who shrank back a little, “Hi Jamie, you look handsome, excited about tonight?”