Matthias Oreklein’s Blog

Aaron sighed.  He had no idea why he was taking the train.  He could simply fly home and arrive stunningly and dramatically in front of his house, but he couldn’t surprise his family.  He hadn’t been home in a little over six years.  He had been warned by the Timekeeper not to touch the Earth until he had his gifts under control, otherwise he would spread chaos across the planet.

For the longest time he had been longing to go home and visit the family he left behind.  So why was he so miserable.  Maybe it was because of the life he had in his gigantic family.  Being the exact middle and seventh child, he never really got the attention he needed at anytime in his life, even if his parents gave any.  Maybe it was because of the crap all of his siblings gave him.  Either way his life was filled with such pain he was glad to fall into the sky that fateful day and get away from it.

Despite the fact that he could see anything anywhere, he refused to turn his vision toward home wondering what they were like now.  He decided that this would be a good time to look.

He looked into the past and viewed the days after his departure.  His mother Jeannette was kneeling next to her bed praying.  That was odd, Jeanette, or any of his family for that matter, never prayed.  “Oh please, bring him back.  Or, where ever he is, let him be safe and doing what you will have him do.”

Aaron shed a tear.  He cycled through forward in time and watched the change that occurred in his family.  His mother started going to church and praying.  She started reading the bible, and soon it caught on to his father, John.  John quit drinking and cleaned himself up.  He got a job, a good one this time.  His brothers worked hard to stop smoking pot, and eventually all of them did.  His sister a year older finished high school with honors because of the better family.  The house was cleaned up.

The pantry began to fill up.  They never stopped searching for him.  His sister went off to college and married a writer.  Both his parents went back to school, and able to get better jobs.  His father now worked at a desk programing computers, and his mother was teaching piano on the baby grand given to them by their son in law.  His brothers started a contracting firm and built houses.  They built a new one for their parents.  He watched his younger siblings graduate, the twins get married.

Aaron was bawling.  How could he turn away from them?  The train began to decelerate until it came to a stop at the station above the Earth.  Aaron walked off the golden train and stepped to the edge of the floating platform.  Leaning over he vaulted into the air.  Tendrils of red light forming around him into a comet’s tail.   He fell like meteor into the atmosphere of his home world.

He targeted the outskirts of the town his parents currently lived in, his whole family lived on the same road.  Was I holding them back?  Or was it their love for me that changed them?  He thought on his way down.  Landing lightly on his feet, he started walking toward their subdivision.  As he walked, his normal red leather cloak and clothes from the Timekeeper’s watch retracted and transformed into a pair of dark blue jeans a blue tee shirt and a red leather jacket.  The red boots became red converse shoes, and the gloves retracted, but the watch on his right hand still remained prominent with its two and half inch face and three inch band.

Aaron tapped the watch face and rotated it until he arrived at the motorcycle command.  Pushing the face in like a button, grinding and clicking noises emanated from the watch as a gleaming red motorcycle formed from it.  The large bike stood their beautifully, fully formed as Aaron climbed onto it.

He revved the engine and grinned.  A shiny red helmet formed over his head.  Lifting his feat he shot forward into the subdivision toward his parents’ home.  He came to a stop in front of a beautiful white two story, victorian home with a big red door.  Aaron put the kick stand down on the bike and climbed off, leaning on it, wondering if he should go up to the house or not.

He saw a curtain move in one of the upper windows and a fifteen year old girl looked down from above.  It was Aaron’s little sister Veronica.  Her eyebrows raised in appreciation.  Aaron began to read her thoughts but stopped the moment she thought, “He’s pretty cute, I wonder who it is.”

I can’t believe she hasn’t recognized me.  He thought.  Have the gifts of the worlds changed me that much?

The curtain closed and he heard foot steps from inside the house.  The door opened and their stood his father and mother.

“Can we help you?” called Jeanette.

“You might be able to,” replied Aaron as he walked forward.  “If you can recognize me.”  Aaron was two yards away before Jeanette’s eyes began to fountain.  John stood ogling with an open mouth.

Jeanette ran up to Aaron and bawled even harder.  She sniffed and Aaron hugged her.  Jeanette reached up to his face and stroked his jaw while smiling tears rolled down her face.  “Welcome home!”

“Son?” whispered John.  “Aaron?!”

Aaron looked up, his own eyes flooded, and nodded.

“Come in!” commanded John gleefully.

Aaron crossed the threshold into their large foyer, his mother leading him by hand.  “Kids!” called John.  “Get down here!”  His tone was loving, if he had said those words before, he would have been very angry.  There was a very large change in his parents’ demeanors in the past years.  Aaron couldn’t stop crying.

“Who’s the hotty?” asked Veronica upon coming down the stairs.

“Your brother,” bawled Jeanette with joy, while hugging Aaron’s large arm.

At first Veronica looked ashamed, and then she remembered, “Aaron?!”

Aaron nodded again.

“I have to go call you other siblings and tell them to get here as soon as possible,” whispered Jeanette, and she went and grabbed the phone.  She beckoned them into the sitting room.  Aaron gazed around him.  Their life had changed so much.  All of his siblings were older than twelve now, as apposed to their life when Aaron was still there.

Jeanette just kept calling the nine siblings who lived else where.  Aaron sat on his own sofa while the rest of the family his three siblings sitting on the other couch with John.  Veronica was the second youngest, Emily the youngest at thirteen, and Hailey at seventeen.  They all just stared at him.  In a matter of moments Jeanette set the phone down and the door slammed open.  In came his nine siblings, eight spouses, one fiancé, and several grandchildren came running into the sitting room.  They all lined up either behind, on, or in front of the opposite couch to Aaron.

They all looked astonished, even the ones who had never even known Aaron.  Anthony, his oldest brother cradled his newly born third child in his arms.  No one said a word, but all eyes were wide and some filled with tears.

Michael, the second oldest, was the first to speak, wall actually shout, “Where in the devil have you been?!”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I tried to explain,” replied Aaron calmly, he was trying very hard not to let his aura show.

“Try me!” he sounded angry.

“I’ve been away.”

“Well obviously!” shouted Anthony’s wife.  Aaron didn’t even know who she was.  Aaron decided to employ a special trick he learned from some long forgotten world, the ability to discover people’s reaction to something they were about to learn.  Aaron discovered the they would actually take it composedly, because he also had the power of persuasion.

“Let me explain,” he began.  “Six years and six months ago, I came home from school and went off to the old hill to do my homework.  I finished early so I leaned back to cloud watch, then a few moments later all I knew was the sensation of falling… into the sky.”

“You fell into the sky?” asked Jeremy, the third.  “I always thought you fell of the face of the earth, but I didn’t know literally.”

“Let me continue,” insisted Aaron.  “Anyway, I was falling and… anyway, the details aren’t important, the most important thing I have to say, is for the past six years I have been traveling between worlds trying to hunt down this being called the Star Eater.  All that you know of space is a lie.  it doesn’t exist in the form you know.  Stars are not giant balls of nuclear matter, but the souls of the dead…”  Aaron explained everything he had experienced and all that he knew.  They all remained silent through his story and motionless.  Their mouths agape at first, but slowly began to close.  To emphasize the story and prove to them it was real, he demonstrated his gifts and showed them the watch and its powers.  When he was finished, everyone was speechless.  The whole time he was talking he used the gift of persuasion, so they should believe him.

“So…” finished Aaron.  “I would like a little feedback on this.”

“Why come back now?” asked Devon, the fifth.

“The Timekeeper told me it was time.”

“So you’ll do anything she says?” asked John.

Aaron nodded.

“Now that I think about it,” said Anthony’s wife, “I can see the resemblance, but how, in the world, did you grow so big?”

“Actually,” corrected Aaron, “the phrase is ‘how in the worlds?’  And the gift of stature has touched me one too many times.”

She mouthed, “Oh,” and nodded.

“So about these Fenner-whatsits, they just control everything?” asked Veronica.

Aaron nodded, “They are called Fennerites.”

“Scary,” she whispered.

“Not really,” replied Aaron, “The current kings is a very good man.  He was the one who brought me the watch.”

“How long are you going to be staying?” asked Jeanette?

“The Timekeeper told me to stay here until called back.  That could be for months, she did say that I wouldn’t be needed for several weeks.”

“Well, welcome home!” cheered Jeanette.  For the first time they all smiled and nodded in agreement.  Aaron could feel a tear roll down his face.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

 

(So, what did you guys think?  I would like some feedback on this one.  I want to know: do you want to hear more?  Do you want something different?  What do you think?

If you care, the original prompt came from: http://afinemuse.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/prompt-1/   Have fun and, Read and Comment!)

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