The Henhouse

June 4th, 2019 - 9:23 AM

It took Justin three tries to call home. The first number he tried answered with a weird hum, while the second connected him to some Pizza Hut in Pierce County. He couldn't feel too surprised; memory had never been his strong suit. Biology class had shown him that well enough.... 

"Sure- things are... fine," Ella breathed into a phone as Justin dialed his third guess. His eyes scanned her posture – fingers tapping against the reciever, the other hand running through her hair. No one mentioned the dinner. It was for the best, Justin realized; they were just being over-reactive, after all.

"Oh, Justin!" a high voice boomed in his ear.

He grimaced. "Hey, Mom, what's up?"

Talking to her here in the Henhouse, he could practically smell the rotten egg all over again. He remembered how the first letter had just barely avoided the egg as he'd thrown it in the trash, and he remembered how his mother strained to pick it out clean.

"It's a scam," he'd whined at her. "The CIA? Come on. Soon they'll ask for some 'deposit,' or 'advanced payment' for the travel fees...."

"Always so negative," she'd say. "I'll make a couple calls, and you'll see."

And call, she did. She must have dialed up half of Fairfax County by the end of the day, and someone must have swayed her, because she single-handedly completed and sent in all of Justin's paperwork within the week of the letter's arrival.

Then again, she didn't take much persuading on anything.

The issue of whether Justin wanted to go was politely discussed. It was irrelevant, in the end. A single mother receptionist didn't yield an impressive income. With Justin's twin sisters already studying in college - despite an impressive financial aid package – his mother was at her wit's end on how she'd afford sending Justin off to school. $5,000 wasn't a full ride... but it didn't hurt them, either.

A God-send. She'd called the study exactly that. A religious woman, it wasn't surprising for her to see a twist of fate as divine intervention.

"How are you?" she sighed, breaths crackling over the line. "Oh, we've missed you...."

Justin made the usual small talk while keeping an ear trained on nearby conversations.

"It's fine," he heard Artie sneer. "You'd love it here. Yes, wonderful-"

"Well, I can't work out too much," Peter explained in a shy mutter, "You know, with- with the brace and all-"

Justin was easily tracking all 7 of his roommates - except for Casper, who was nowhere to be seen. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember Casper even coming out of his room when calling hour had been announced....

"-and Jess's internship is going very well, the infographic she designed is going to be posted on the campaign website this Thursday, we're all so excited to see it-"

Justin tried to engage himself in his sister's lives, but with little success. After a few more minutes catching-up, he hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. He moved to the living room, where Ella lay on the couches with a magazine in her lap. Ivy sat on the ground, bending over the coffeetable in an awkward-looking hunch. She'd been there since he'd woken that morning.

As he drew closer he heard her muttering quickly: "1, 4, 7- 7, 9, 1, 2, 3...." while repeatedly brushing hair out of her eyes, forcefully enough that she was accidentally slapping herself in the face in the process. A pencil clutched in her twitching hands danced frantically across the pages of some kind of book. Her chest heaved in and out with quick yet deep breaths.