The Essence Of Time Chapter 3

[mystdogs]

The Essence Of Time

Chapter 3

“Maude” Chris growled at the woman that had arrived on his doorstep before he noticed the small child by her side. “Ezra,” his eyes locked on the sea green pools staring at him with apprehension and a hint of fear. “My God, I’ve missed you son.” Chris quickly gathered the child into a bone crushing embrace. He couldn’t believe he was finally home, and he would be damned if Maude would be running off with him ever again.

Ezra was too shocked to respond until he started having trouble breathing and then began to struggle for his freedom. Finally the tight grip loosened but never let him go as he felt himself lifted into a pair of strong arms. “Mother?” He knew his voice quivered nervously and he would be later reprimanded, but he had never encountered such an off kilter moment before.

“Ezra darling, this is your father, Chris Larabee.”

Before anyone could respond a small russet headed child flew up the steps. “Daddy, Daddy, I got ice cream at school today. Ms. Mattson said I did all my work right and she gave me ice cream. We made a picture today, it’s in my bag. Can we put it on the refrigerator? Can we?” The little whirlwind barely took a breath before moving on to another question. “Who’s that?” he asked pointing to the child being held in his father’s arms.

“Adam, this is your older brother Ezra. Do you remember me telling you about him?”

“Uh huh, the evil witch took him away right before I was born. He’s back does that mean the witch was squished by a house?”

Chris fought hard to keep from laughing at Adam’s words and seeing Sarah barely containing her mirth he couldn’t help cracking a grin. Lowering himself down he place Ezra on his feet and made introductions. “Ezra, this is your little brother Adam. The lovely lady is my wife Sarah. Adam why don’t you and Ezra go up to your room. Your mother and I need to have an adult talk with Ezra’s mother.”

“Okay Daddy, Come on Ezra I got the coolest game. It’s got cowboys and Indians and horses and..” The voice drowned out as the two boys headed off to Adam’s room.

“Maude I believe we need to have a talk.” Chris turned coldly to the woman in front of him, before heading into the house leaving her to follow.

~~~~~~~~7~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, Maude took her leave without Ezra. He would be spending the next month with Chris and Sarah while she took care of some business. Her excuse of taking off with Ezra to give Chris and Sarah time with their new baby had felt hollow. Chris was sure there was another reason, but Maude was not forth coming.

Ezra and Adam seemed to settle in well for the first few days, but it wasn’t long before small fights would break out. Adam had never had another child in his life to compete with and it seemed now everything was a competition.

“Daddy Ezra won’t play with me.”

“Why don’t you find another game you could play by yourself?”

“He’s just being mean. All he ever wants to do is read. That’s boring, I want to play. Why doesn’t he ever want to play? He’s weird!”

“Adam that’s not very nice, your brother is not weird. Ezra is a bit older than you and when people get older they find enjoyment in different types of games. Your brother loves to read; maybe you can ask him to read you a story?”

“I did Dad,” he whined “but he said he did not like to read baby books. I’m not a baby and his books are boring, there’s no pictures.”

“I’ll have a talk with Ezra and see if he can find something the two of you can do together.”

“Thank you Daddy”

Chris sighed as he made his way up to the room the boys were sharing. He wondered how Sarah dealt with this every day. He had been watching the boys for the last four hours and had already spoken to them multiple times about getting along together. He hoped things would settle between the boys soon. When Maude returned in a few weeks they would be working out a regular visiting schedule for Ezra. Maude had left them with the responsibility of getting enrolled into school. Ezra had seemed relieved that he and Adam would be in different grade levels, but Adam was not. He had wanted to take his brother in for show and tell. Chris groaned as he considered the call he would receive from the school regarding the tale Adam would tell. It reminded him that he would be having a long talk with Buck about how he explained certain things to his son.

~~~~~~~7~~~~~~~

Ezra quickly brushed the dirt off his shirt and sighed in relief that no one noticed he had been dirty. He sighed as he readjusted the glove on his hand again. Baseball is what his father called the game they were trying to play. He wasn’t sure what all the rules were, but when the ball flew towards him he was supposed to try and catch it. He smiled at the ball that was resting in his glove.

“Great catch Ezra!” His father exclaimed.

A brilliant smile with full dimples took over the child’s face. Ezra decided that he loved this game and wanted to know everything he could about the game of baseball. His little brother even seemed to be enjoying himself. It was the first time Ezra could remember ever having such a pleasant day with other people. Normally he was left out and shunned by others when brought to a family activity. That was one reason why he tended to prefer reading. He was out of everyone’s way and could lose himself in the author’s story.

“Hey Ezra come on in son, it’s your turn at bat.”

Smiling even brighter, Ezra watched as the ball he hit went flying over the fence before it disappeared into the woods. He bit his lip nervously as he waited for the explosion that he lost the ball.

“WOW, did you see that Daddy? Ezra hit a home run! Wow can you show me how to do that Ezra? Man wait till I tell the kids at school!”

“Nice hit son, I think you’re a natural.”

An hour later Sarah smiled as she watched her three boys playing a game of ball. She was so happy to see all of them playing together. It seemed her little boy now had a hero worship with his big brother’s baseball playing. She knew the childhood fights would continue but had a feeling the two boys would become very close over the years. She was only saddened that Maude had cheated them out of so many years together.

 

Comments

[sga-rocks.livejournal.com]

Poor little Ezra. I lik the fights the two of them were having. Hopefully Ezra will enjoy his time with them. Makes me really sad when I think Sarah and Adam will die, you've made them into real characters if you know what I mean.

[tpena19.livejournal.com]

Oh!! *wibbles* I forgotted they would die and things would get sucky, how sad!! Things are so nice right now, they are getting along like a real family, I like it.

But conflict is a fun read too, lol, so I am looking forwards to more of that too :)

[sivanshemesh.livejournal.com]

This is just bad... hope that whatever Maud's business is won't bring death upon Chris.

Ezra needs to play nicely with his little brother and act like a child he is.

Adam, he is so cute.

Thank you for writing it. Keep writing.

Keep up the great work that you are doing with your fic and update asap.

*Hugs & Kisses*

Have a great week and keep smiling,

Sivan Shemesh