“In which The League plans to get lost and Donnie starts questioning his mother”
“Mom?” It was Donnie that uttered these words. It was a Monday. Not that that really mattered, since it was Summer and school was off. It would be. For another week at least. “Mom?” Donnie looked for her in the living room, which his mom had re-decorated during the Summer Break. Rachel was nowhere to be seen. Donnie mumbles to himself. “That’s weird”. Suddenly, a sound can be heard; a sound of rattling, almost as if a ghost stood beside him with his chain. But of course, this was not what was happening. What was happening, was that Rachel, Donnie’s mother, stood outside the front door, rattling with her keys, trying to unlock the door.
Donnie ran to the front door and opened it before Rachel had put the key into the lock. “Mom! There you are!” Rachel is stunned, and as she walks inside she says; “Yes, here I am. I’ve been at the mall, buying some clothes.” “Something for me…?” Donnie asked, hopefully. “No. Not this time.” Donnie sighs. Rachel takes her clothes off and walks into the kitchen. Donnie follows her. “Mom, I have a question to ask”. Rachel starts to boil some water, preparing for tea. The Knightale-family have always had a thing for tea. Everyone drinks it; adults and children, uncles and aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers. No one drinks coffee. Ever.
Back at Richard’s house, a fight is blooming. “You were in my room reading all night?” This was, of course, Richard’s words. Lora had told him what she had been doing while he had been away. “Y… Yes. I thought you’d be glad, that I’d finally found something that made me want to read more”. Lora hoped that they would come to an agreement, so that this argument didn’t lead into a fight. “Yes, yes I am. But… But you’re only doing this to be in The League and to spend more time with Donnie!” Lora’s face turns red. She can see what is coming towards her. She only has one chance of turning this situation around. “Yes. That was why I started reading. That is why I wanted to be in The League. But now that I’ve started reading… I’m not doing that for anyone else. I’m doing it for myself. After those three books I read last night, I want to continue reading.” As Lora said these words, she knew that she had terminated every chance of there ever being a fight between them today. At least that was what she thought.
Donnie’s sitting at a table. An extremely hot cup of Earl Gray Tea with a little sugar and milk is on the table in front of him. At the opposite side of the table is Rachel, Donnie’s mother. She is in a mild shock, caused by the words Donnie just threw at her. “I don’t…”, she mumbles. She takes a sip of the hot tea in front of her. The kitchen is full of light. The walls are painted yellow. It’s not a particularly large room, but it isn’t small either. The table has room for 10 people at maximum, and three people could cook at the same time. You could easily cook dinner for over 40 people in here. Not that these facts are on anyone’s mind right now.
“Mom? I need some answers” Donnie finally broke the awkward silence that had been going on for several minutes now. “Yes. Yes, and I understand that Donnie. It’s just that…” Rachel sighs. “I just don’t like to talk about your father”. “Why not? I mean, why isn’t he here? What is the dark tale that you don’t want me to know? Did he do something bad to you? Is he dead? For christ sakes, it’s not like I don’t know ANYTHING about him! He’s my father! I ought to know something about what happened!” Donnie nearly explodes. If things continues like this, this quest for answers would turn into a fight.
“So, you’re still in love with Donnie?” Richard asked, looking weirdly at Lora. “Yes, I’m still in love with Donnie. But I’m also in love with literature. Like all of the people in the League” Lora answers. The fight has been averted. Richard walks around the room, thinking long and hard about this. Then, a solution came to mind.
Rachel is hurt. She doesn’t want to remember what had taken place in their own garage. Her mind had tried to forget these memories; buried them under all the good ones. But as of this moment, they had all begun to reappear. Things never stays buried. Not forever.
Richard talked fast. What he proposed what something Lora never thought he’d do for her. This was only proof that he had changed since last year. He had changed a lot.
“I don’t want to remember, Donnie. One day, I’ll tell you. But not until I’m ready. OK?” Donnie took several deep breaths. Rachel was heartbroken; you could see it in every fiber of her body. She was at the brink of a breakdown. If Donnie uttered the wrong words at this moment, they would both be very sad and angry at each other. Luckily, Richard saved the moment.
Donnie felt something buzzing in his pocket. He picked it up. It was his cellphone. He answered the call, hinting to his mother that it was okay, that he understood and that they needed to talk this over. “Castle! What up?” Donnie said into the phone. “Hi Donnie”. Richard was at the other end. “As King, or Castle if you’d like, I’m calling in for a special meeting tomorrow morning, starting at 6 o’clock. And let me tell you; this’ll be a long meeting”. “Cool. What’s the deal?” Donnie was really curious now; Richard had hosted many meetings, but he had never taken the initiative to start one. “Well, I was looking through my films and stuff, and I suddenly saw LOST, just standing there. So my idea is that we’ll watch all of LOST in the shortest amount of time possible. We all pay for food, candy, drinks etc. You with me?” Richard was a little nervous; if this went the right way, things would be awesome. If not… He tried not to think about that. “Hell yeah I’m in! Tomorrow morning at six?” Donnie was immediately psyched for the deal. “Yes. Tomorrow morning at six”. Richard lets a sigh of relief out, and does a “thumbs-up” to Lora. “Great! You let the others know?” Donnie didn’t want to be the one to call all the others, especially since it wasn’t his idea. “No, I’ll do that” Richard replied. “Just go back to whatever it is you were doing!” Richard replied. “Great! Byish then!” Donnie hung up and looked at his mother, who was about to tell him something of great importance.
“It’s on”, he said, with great importance. Her face lit up with a smile and she threw herself around Richard. “You’re the best big brother in the world.” Richard couldn’t resist the joy of the moment. He begun smiling as well.
