"I don't know where I put it."
Josh stood before his parents, hands shoved in the back pockets of his jeans. He couldn't meet his mother's eyes and hoped his father would run interference for him. Had he managed the careful balance of guilt and shame in the admission?
"Oh not today, Joshua! I've got three deliveries to make before I can drop off the picnic lunch for field day-" Dad rested a hand on Mom's shoulder. She shot him her own pleading look. Kathy poked her head into the kitchen as she struggled into her combat boots, a gleam of pure spite radiating from his twin.
"Did you check the bathroom? You took, like, an hour long shower last night after everybody went to bed. I'm surprised Hannah had any hot water when she got up for practice this morning. Or clean towels."
Josh flipped her the bird behind his back while his dad steadily pushed the Tabby in Tabby's Lunch Break towards the kitchen door. Despite the open mouthed horror on his mother's face, she allowed herself to be navigated to the nearest exit. It was a similar exit his father, Frank, had taken when his oldest sister Irene had announced a need for birth control the month before prom.
"Katherine Alice," Dad bellowed over Josh's shoulder after the minivan's engine shuddered to life, "that's the kind of crap I'd have put peroxide in Aunt Diane's conditioner for! Go check downstairs for your brother. Maybe he left it by the freezer."
Booted feet clobbered down the stairs, though not loud enough to cover his sister's high pitched insults and complaints. Frank folded his arms across his chest, taking a moment to remind himself he was the adult and not to respond to his daughter's. A cooler head was needed to keep them together as the morning derailed.
"I warned you, buddy. This is not like the time you forgot to feed the class hamster over winter break. Or forgetting to tell Mom you signed her up to bring four dozen cupcakes to the bake sale. This is bigger than you. It's a family commitment-"
"Going back to Grrrreat, grrrrreat, grrrrreat Grrrrandpa Archibald!" Josh finished with a flourish, his right arm swinging up in a grand salute. A muscle in his father's cheek spasmed. Frank's words came out in a growl.
"Scour the attic, turn your bed upside down, just find it, DAMN IT!"
Kathy returned from the basement as Josh rushed from the room and noting her father's darkening expression she offered to help upstairs.
"Better late than dead," she muttered once she was sure she was out of earshot. The twins came back down ten minutes later, somber and trembling. Kathy pushed Josh towards their father as she tried to sink within the depths of her track hoodie.
"It's not up there. I-I don't know where it could be." The skin on Frank's face ripened to a mottled purple. He loomed over his son, as though he could suck the air from the boy's lungs.
"You've doomed us." He turned away from his children and began twisting on the gas knobs of the stove.
"Daddy, no! There's got to be more time." Kathy peeked around her brother's shoulder. Her own skin appeared thicker, taking on an orange hue.
"There's just enough time to call your mother and sisters. You have to feel the pull by now, both of you." Kathy and Josh's arms moved awkwardly as they moved to hold each other. Their bones felt confined, wrong somehow, their skin hot and dry. Their fingernails stung just beneath the skin.
Frank picked up his smartphone from the counter, his hand shaking as fingers slowly knitted together into three larger appendages. He managed to scroll through his contacts to one noted as I.C.E - END. Before he could initiate the group call, his individual fingers spread apart with a gluey pop. The kitchen door flew open as the tail forming at the base of his spine disappeared.
"Looking for something, Josh?" Hannah held up her hand, a piece of amber the size of a quarter rested against her palm. Frank turned off the gas, opening the windows and turning on the hood exhaust once the room was no longer filling with fuel. His older daughter closed her fingers tightly over the stone as she walked through the kitchen.
"It was on the back porch, next to your baseball glove. I'll hold onto this for now. You know, because I'd really like to not turn into a mindless killing machine or be blown up to prevent massive loss of human life. I left my cleats outside to air out, Dad. I'll be ready for school in five."
Kathy punched her brother's shoulder twice before stomping out of the kitchen and slamming the front door. Josh, awash in shame, stared silently at his father. Frank took his time answering the swift influx of text messages from his wife and oldest daughter.
"Your mother," he drawled, "may very well have my balls for this. Because in the human world, beating a child is not acceptable and she's going to blow up once she gets home. Luckily for a three hundred mile radius it won't be in dragon form, huh?" Josh swallowed hard. Frank ran both hands through his salt and pepper hair.
"Shit, buddy. That's the closest... I mean, I've only reverted to that form twice in my whole life. Under extremely careful circumstances might I add, in hidden places."
"I'm sorry."
A flash, presumably Hannah, bolted down the stairs and out the front door.
"OkayI'mreadygottadash."
"Three of 'em and I still can't understand as fast as they can talk." Frank snorted, finally looking up at his son. "You need a change of drawers?"
"No, sir." Josh shook his head.
"But close?"
"Yes, sir." The older man nodded.
"At least your body knew what inning we were in." He exhaled slowly and gestured for the boy to head for the door. "Look, we all know you're not ready yet now. I'll let your mother hammer that in for the next two weeks. But you and me have a long road to go down over what I almost had to do. It's the kind of responsibility that comes with living in the human world. I can't let us loose if we lost that talisman. And until you can appreciate that, what I'd have to do, you can kiss your life as you know it goodbye."
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