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“Finn! Dinner!”
There was a scramble of footsteps as the teenager went to his bedroom door to sound his response, “One sec, mom!” before returning to his computer with urgency. The girl on the screen looked just as eager for him to finish what they were talking about.
“So he says to me,” he puts on a voice, “Why don’t we go round back and I’ll show you.”
“Jeez Finn, please tell me you said no?”
“What do you take me for, Lis? Of course I did!” His voice is hushed as he leans in on the laptop keyboard. He anticipated the next call from his mother, a second reminder that they were gathering at the table. “Listen, I gotta go. Talk to you later?”
“Of course,” the girl responded as if he had asked a question that should have had an obvious answer.
Closing the laptop with a smile, he bounced out the chair and raced downstairs as not to keep his family waiting. The first person he sees is his brother Marc taking a drink of water from a glass. Their eyes meet and Marc grins at him.
“And he rises from his cave!” It’s a teasing tone that invokes Finn to retaliate with brotherly banter.
“Caveman’s gotta eat,” he says as he sits himself down, pulling the chair to tuck himself at the table. He instantly notices the empty space where his Sister would be. “Meredin not home?”
“She’s doing some extra study time,” he hears his mom say as she approaches the table, There is a sudden draft as she pulls the snapback cap he was wearing, giving his head a soft kiss as she runs a hand through his hair. “Cavemen don’t wear hats at the table sweetie.”
“Sorry,” he says, his eyes bright with affection as he ran a hand through his hair to fix it.
Today was one of those rare days most of them were home. Between his parent’s shifts at the hospital and Marc’s at the station, the only real constant in the house was Finn, something that he hoped college would break. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to spend time with his family, it was more he sought a bit more variety in his life than being home at dinner time.
“What are we having?” The voice of his father came from the door to the living room where he entered, walking over to his mother and giving her a small peck on the cheek before taking his place at the table.
“Grilled Chicken in garlic and herbs. There are roast potatoes and green beans as well.” She put down the dish with the chickens on it, the steam and scent filling the space around them as all three men at the table took a moment to appreciate the home-made dinner.
“Smells beautiful mom,” Marc said as he was the first to start, forking a piece of chicken breast onto his plate. Their father followed and Finn sat back and smiled, if only for a moment as he watched his dad follow up on Marc’s comment. It was times like these that he would miss if he went to college, and it always played on his mind that if he got accepted, staying at the dorms meant times like this would become even more of a rare occasion.
The empty seat at the end of the table caught his attention again.
‘I wish Meredin was here.’