Glancing at the sky while the yellow taxi cab started away from his house, Taylor Hanson sighed. “It looks like rain,” he muttered.
His younger brother Zac looked up as well. “Looks like clouds to me,” he said with a shrug. Taylor rolled his blue eyes at him. Zac just grinned and bounded toward his house. Once at the front door, he grabbed onto the doorknob and twisted it. Or, at least he tried. “It’s locked,” he observed.
From behind him, his oldest brother Isaac let out a small groan. He shifted his guitar case from one hand to the other and began digging into his pocket for his house keys. He drew them out and unlocked the door. Zac swung it open and continued his invasion.
Isaac walked in after his little brother and announced, “We’re home!”
Taylor made his way inside and closed the door behind him. “Ike, I think we’re the only ones,” he said, looking around at the eerily quiet house. He walked through the living room and into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was a note hanging from a magnetic clip on the refrigerator. It read, “Boys: Went to your aunt’s house. She caught what Jessie and Avery had and I’m going to look after her. Your father is still sick. Mack, Zoë, and I seem to be the only ones immune. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call you later. Mom.”
Shrugging, Tay got himself a glass of milk. As he put the jug away, he ran his tongue over the tooth he’d broken in Germany. Even though the dentist had been able to fix it, he often worried about it - especially when he drank milk.
Walking back into the living room, Tay said, “They all went to our aunt’s house.”
Already engrossed in a video game, Isaac and Zac didn’t seem to pay much attention to their brother’s announcement. Sighing, Taylor made his way to the couch and collapsed onto it. He watched as his brothers fought each other on the TV screen. Bored, he sipped his milk.
As it turned out, the grisly man wasn’t so bad. His name was Chuck and he had a wife, Molly, and three young children, Jake, Todd, and Emily. He worked as a mechanic and had been visiting a sick relative in Kansas. It turned out, Chuck’s relative lived in Wichita, just like Tracy.
Scenery zoomed past Tracy’s window and she lost herself somewhere within it. All she was aware of was the steady hum of the truck’s engine and the sound of the music on the radio. It was a song she liked: “Freshman” by the Verve Pipe. Slowly, it faded out and another took it’s place. Momentarily, Tracy looked up from the roadside and groaned. Not seeming to notice, Chuck turned the radio up and muttered along with the words of “MMMBop”. Tracy rolled her eyes and tried her hardest to tune out the pre-pubescent squeals of the horrible Hanson brothers. Taylor Hanson’s voice was almost as painful for Tracy as the gnawing in her stomach.
It was going to be a long trip.
“Taylor! Yo! Jordan Taylor!”
Tay looked up from the carpet and into Isaac’s brown eyes. “What?” he asked.
Isaac waved the video game controller in the air. “You wanna play?” he inquired, giving a smile.
Smiling back, Taylor made his way across the room. Isaac crossed the room as well and took over his younger brother’s place on the couch. Sitting down, he realized for the first time how strange it was for his house to be as quiet as it was. The Hanson house was never quiet; not with four kids whose ages hadn’t bridged the double digits. And then, there was Zac. He was twelve, but he could still be as crazy as ever. And then there was Isaac himself. Well, he thought with a half smile, let’s not go there.
Shrugging, Isaac picked up his brother’s glass and took a drink from it. As he set the glass back on the end table, Taylor called, “Don’t do that.”
Ike sighed. It never ceased to amaze him how his brother seemed to have radar. Tay let out a small groan. Zac just laughed.
Just then, the telephone rang. It was the second line - the one only family members used; Isaac could tell by the ring. He climbed off the couch and jolted to pick it up. “Hello?”
“Isaac?” asked the voice of his mother, Diana. “Good, you all got home all right.”
“Hi, Mom,” Ike put in. “How is everybody? Are they feeling any better?”
“Well, they’re sick, so, as good as can be expected, I suppose. How are you and your brothers?”
“We’re good, Mom,” Isaac said simply.
“That’s good,” Diana replied. “Well, I’ll let you go. I’ll be home as soon as I can, all right?”
“Yeah, Mom. I’ll see you then,” he said. “Love you. Bye.”
“Love you, too. Bye.”
Ike placed the phone back in its cradle and went into the living room to pass the information onto his brothers.
Once he was done relaying the message, Taylor stood from his place in front of the TV and offered the remote control to him. Ike took the controller and sat in Tay’s spot.
After watching as his brothers engage in a virtual fight momentarily, Tay shuffled into his bedroom. From the bottom mattress of the bunk bed he and his brothers shared, he picked up his laptop computer and flipped it on.
After a few clicks with the mouse and a couple seconds of loading time, Taylor was looking at Ally’s picture.
He read the small message she had attached to it. Well, here’s my picture. Enjoy! Yeah right, right? Love, Ally.
Even though he had read the message millions of times before, Taylor felt his cheeks grow warm. Love, Ally. It wasn’t like when fans screamed “I love you!”, or even when he read it in fan mail. It was different with Ally. Maybe it was because she wasn’t a fan - just a friend. Maybe it was because somewhere deep inside, Taylor actually believed she meant it.
But, that was crazy. Wasn’t it?
Next Chapter
The "ON" Index
The Story Index
