Seen {ON HOLD}

Chapter Eight

As I step back inside the almost pitch black walls of the house, I run right into Aunt Windsong, who lets out a muffled ‘oomph’ and falls backwards onto her butt.

“Blast it, Hugo!” She snaps, getting up and brushing the dust off her long, denim pants with the backs of her hands. My aunt is truly beautiful for her age, with closely cropped black hair and deep, greenish blue eyes. Her skin is slightly tanned from a childhood outside in the sun and a light sprinkle of freckles still cover her button nose. She wears a cotton singlet which she’d probably made from an old handkerchief, and a wrist watch fastening her trousers like a belt.

“Geeze, I’m sorry!” I mutter, feeling a little ashamed. Windsong smiles gently and wipes a sheen of sweat from her forehead. I quickly slide the giant sheet of notepaper down the back of my pants, hoping she won’t question it. My old shoe is tucked under one arm. Windsong scratches the inside of her arm for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh.

“You haven’t seen your uncle, have you?” She asks me.

“Kent, you mean?”

“Why would I go looking for Rodney, Hugo?” She sighs, with a casual eye roll. “You can hear that man traipsing around with his wooden leg from halfway across the bloody house!”  

Sensing her obviously pissed off mood, I shake my head and shuffle backwards a little. “Nope. He’ll be in the kitchen or having a beer with Dad if anything, knowing him.”

It’s true, in a way, my answer. Pretty much everyone knows how Kent works. He’s annoyingly lazy, even for a borrower and when he’s actually doing something, we all know he’ll be fooling around in the kitchen or taking his sons, Remy and Brody on crazy adventures in the garden or around the house. Remy and Brody have probably seen more with their father than I have in a lifetime. These days my parents are too busy with Juno and Pierce to realise I’m still there. Growing up with an elder sister and another lot of chatterboxes can be a challenge. Especially when Juno has her little talks about her ‘date’ with a French borrower next door.

At my remark, Windsong groans. Sometimes I wonder why she chose to marry that man… and have three kids while she was at it. I’ve spoken to Blue on many occasions and she’s downright refused to make it clear that she even had a father. “That man needs to get off his lousy arse and help me with the boys!” She snaps, folding her arms. I shrug absentmindedly in response.

“You know where Blue is at the moment?” I ask her, after a moment of silence. Windsong only groans louder.

“Just like her father, that girl. And no, I haven’t seen her. She’s living with your sister now, you know.”

I nod once. Yes, it’s true that Clementine has moved out with Blue. I see the two of them around sometimes, Blue more often, but usually we’re too far away to notice each other in detail.

“Well, I guess I should get back home.” I say, gesturing to my shoe under my arm. “Just found this behind the couch… god knows how it got there.” It’s a good thing Windsong is to frazzled to realise that I’m lying through my teeth. I can’t afford to let my family know about the way too curious bean.

She picks up on my statement though, and grabs my wrist to catch me off guard. “I’ve sent Remy up to your place for a play this afternoon. Remember how you said you could fit it in while Brody’s with his father…?”

Crap. I do remember. Ughhh…. Why can’t Blue and Clem look after him again, like they did last time…? In the past, Remy has gotten into way too much trouble. My sister and I take it in turns babysitting him while Kent and Brody spend some time together, and on every visit, Remy always asks the same thing: ‘Wanna play hide and seek, Hugo?’ I swear to god it drives me insane.

“Alright then.” I sigh, beginning to walk down the dark hallway.

“Stay safe, Hugo!” My aunt calls, before she’s swallowed by the darkness.

****

Just as I’ve gotten home and tucked the bean’s note safely under my bed’s sock blanket, I hear a knock at the door. Chucking my borrowing bag in the direction of its hook, I make for the door, knowing who’ll be waiting on the other side.

“Hey, Remy.” I smile, stepping aside so that the short, skinny ten year old can enter. Remy instantly makes a beeline for my beanbag, which I made from a hacky sack I found in the old bean’s cupboard. I watch the small boy sink into the red knotted wool cover and giggle. His brown hair falls in front of his eyes, just as mine had done when I was younger. He really reminds me of myself, Remy.

“Hugo?” Remy asks, batting his eyelids innocently.

“Yeah?” I ask, shutting the door of the room behind me and tugging off my sweater.

“Can we go outside for a bit?”

“It’s raining, buddy.” I laugh, causing the boy’s smile to fade.

Remy furrows his brow and then his eyes light up. Before he’s even asked the question, I know what he’s going to say. “Hide and seeeeekkkkk????!”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Okay, Rem.” I smile. “Want me to hide first?”

“Yes!” Is the immediate answer.

I’ve never understood Remy’s logic. He loves hide and seek but he hates the hiding part. It’s always me who volunteers to hide for him. Grinning to myself, I dart under a pile of blankets in the corner of the room while he begins to count.

“Nineteen, Twenty! Ready or not!” He yells excitedly. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought of my little cousin as ‘cute’. I can hear him traipsing around and ripping away blankets, opening cupboards and basically trashing my home. What I don’t expect though, is the creaking of the front door as it opens and then slams shut behind him. Instantly, I scurry out from under the blankets, rubbing my neck.

“Remy?”

I don’t have time to listen for an answer before I hear his scream, less than a metre away. I throw open the door and run towards the nearest borrower entrance… but it’s too late.

All I get is a glimpse of his petrified face as he beats at the wall of a glass jar with his fists. It all happens too fast…

“Gotcha.” The female bean’s brother smiles, lifting that jar up and out of sight.