Brand New Day

Chapter 3
Chapter Three

"By the way, how’d it go with Dr. Flynn?" Daniel comments the following day during breakfast. Neither have ever mentioned it, - it’s sort of just common knowledge - but mornings are theirs. Before he leaves for work, Ryder always makes an effort to be up on time for the two of them to eat together, - a Herculean effort, it feels like, sometimes - regardless of how sleepless a night he’s had and then he’ll maybe go back to bed after Daniel’s left.

Ryder coughs uncomfortably before shrugging. "I, uh, may have, um, stormed out."

His guardian sighs, scrubbing a hand down his face. "Ry, you can’t keep-"

"I know, I know, okay? But she didn’t want to listen to a thing I said, Dan. And I sure as heck didn’t want to listen to her."

One look at the teen’s pleading face and Daniel sighs again, before tiredly rubbing his eyes. "I’ll make some calls," he finally says, “We’ll find the right person, Ry. I won’t let you down."

Ry gives a genuine smile, tainted with relief. “You never do.”

Smiling in return, Dan quickly pecks the teen‘s forehead and promises, “I’ll call later, okay? On my lunch break, so keep your cell on. Oh, and no more ‘borrowing’ my car when I‘m gone, got it? Even if you‘re bored. Adults talk, you know. And Mrs. Morrison next door was more than happy to fill me on your little daytime excursions.”

Rolling his eyes, Ryder mutters indistinctly, "Buzzkill."

"I’m going to pretend not to have heard that," Daniel laughs, heading for the door.

"Okay, and while you’re doing that, I can pretend to be sorry for saying it," he calls back, grinning, before shuffling back to his room.

Unnoticed or overlooked, a casual observer in the background as she folds laundry, their housekeeper, Felecia Stone, smiles softly to herself at their usual banter. She’s been employed here for the better part of four years and during that time, Mr. Ellis and his nephew have been nothing but kind and generous to her. She’s watched them fall apart after the death of Daniel’s brother and his wife, encountered them in their darkest moments, seen their every struggle. It’s been a difficult two years.

Yet in spite of the grief, the depression, the treacherous sorrow they both seem to share, a heavy burden on their enduring shoulders, most of all Felecia has witnessed a bond grow stronger day by day, caught glimpses of something that neither of them are likely to ever own up to - Daniel, with his maturing feelings of responsibility, care and paternity, and Ryder, who quietly longs for more, for that parental love he was so sure he‘d lost forever.

But in all that time, there is something they failed to recognise in her.

The truth is, Felecia is a witch, a fairy godmother, a genie - a blessing in disguise.

And she’s about to grant them their deepest, innermost wish.