Glasses

Chapter 1
Chocolate Breakfast

Chapter Description: The Sergres' are your typical family . . .

“Ryan, you need to get ready for school!” Rick yelled up the narrow stairwell to his son, Ryan. Rick could hear the mattress creek as his eight year-old son dragged himself out of bed.

“That’s my boy!” Rick said, now upstairs and looking into Ryan’s room. Ryan’s room was decorated like a typical eight year-old boy’s room. It was a light blue color, not light enough to be baby blue, but not dark enough to earn the title of plain ’blue’. It wasn’t very big, as The Sergres family lived in a town house in a large city. Rick didn’t particularly like the home, but he needed to be close to his office. Rick was a mid-mannered doctor, not even done his internship yet. This was his last year, and he was excited. Rick wanted terribly for Ryan and his wife, Glenn, to have better then what he currently provided.

“Papa, can you leave? I wanna get changed!” Ryan said, trying to push Rick out of the room. Rick let him.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever Ryan. I don’t know why you care, though. Its not like I’ve never seen you in your birthday suit!” Rick joked.

“PAPA!” Ryan said, trying to sound embarrassed, but he was giggling. Ryan was only starting to demand privacy in getting changed and bathing. It made Rick proud to see his first son growing up.

“Alright, I’m sorry,” Rick said with the half-hearted and joking tone parents often used with their younger children.

“I’ll go get breakfast started, how’s chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate milk sound?”

“Yeah!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

About fifteen minutes later, Ryan came downstairs. He was wearing a bright yellow hoodie with camouflage khakis. The yellow hoodie complemented Ryan’s golden blond hair nicely. When Ryan was younger, Rick would joke with him that he was left on their drive step, because ’Mommy and I don’t have golden hair like that, you can’t be ours!’. This wasn’t completely true. Rick had been dying his hair its mousey brown since he was sixteen. He became fed up with the stereotype that blonds were dumb, because he graduated high schools with Distinguished Honors. Ryan shared another trait of his father, and Ryan adjusted them as he sat down at the table.

“Papa, when am I gonna not need these anymore?” Ryan said, holding out his silver glasses to show his father.

“Probably not for a long time. I’m not going to let anyone blast lasers into my Ryaroo’s eyes.” Rick said as he flipped pancakes. ’Ryaroo’ was Glenn’s pet name for Ryan, as when he started kindergarten roughly two years ago, he was so hyper and bouncy, ’like a little kangaroo’ Glenn had told Ryan and Rick one night at the dinner table. The name stuck.

“I miss mommy, when’s she gonna be home?” Rick asked?

“Soon, don’t worry. The doctors say she only needs to be there a few more days.” Rick said. Glenn was pregnant with their second child. She was very late into her third trimester, and her parents insisted that she stayed at the hospital while waiting. Rick didn’t want to question his parents-in-laws, plus Rick thought that Glenn could use the rest. Ryan had bombarded her with questions like, “When is the baby gonna be here?”. “Why are you getting so fat?” (Glenn didn’t like this one), and “Where do babies come from?”. Listening to his son made Rick appreciate that men don’t carry the daunting task of childbirth.

“Is breakfast done yet?” Ryan asked with a polite demeanor. He even had his hands folded.

“Just about,” Rick said gleefully, “Man, kids today! All you guys do is whine, whine, whine, and ask, ask, ask!” he said as he messed up Ryan’s hair.

“I can’t cook for myself!” Ryan said with a playful tone as he straightened his hair, “Mommy says I’m too little to use the stove!”

“That’s right you are!” Rick said as he piled pancakes onto a serving plate and grabbed a pitcher of chocolate milk he had made just for this morning.

Rick sent Ryan off to school like he always did, in good spirits. He then washed off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Normally Ryan would have done that, but because of school he needed to go to the bus stop in a hurry. Although Rick loved Ryan he just couldn’t afford to be late to work now that there was talk of Rick’s boss needing a new surgeon and the Sergres family could use a little more money coming into the house. But he had to impress his boss and stand out among the many other intern. Rick grabbed his DAB, the ’Doctor Attire Bag’ as Glenn jokingly called it on Rick’s first day of internship, and ran out to the door.

Rick and Glenn didn’t like to use the car, with gas prices skyrocketing, which was why a home close to Rick’s work was essential. Rick made far more money then Glenn did at the daycare near Ryan’s school, but she was pleased with her job because she loved kids and she could keep her son there with her for free in addition to earning a small amount of spending money.

“More money for gas would be nice,” Rick said to himself quietly as he walked down the street to the hospital.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rick had a fairly average day. He was in two surgeries and had five patients. When the day was over, he was very tired and was sorry indeed to have to walk home in the rain.

“Damn April showers,” Rick cursed to himself, “It was perfectly sunny this morning,”. In the rain, he couldn’t see where he was walking. His glasses fogged up as if someone was brewing a pot of water under his nose, meaning he consitintly removed them from his face as he walked to clean them. As he was nearing his house, a woman appeared from the dark curtains of rain, and just as soon as she appeared, she crashed into him, causing Rick to drop his glasses with an audible shatter of glass.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, dear,” the woman said as she reached for Rick’s broken frames.

“Its OK,” Rick said, and he offered the woman his hand. She grabbed it and lifted herself off her bottom and brushed herself off.

“Why thank you, child! And after I so mistakably broke your glasses!” The woman said.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Rick said. I have a back-up pair at home. It’s just a few blocks down. However, I must be going. I could barely see before my glasses broke and I’ll have to walk extra carefully and slowly now that I don’t have them.” Rick said.

As he took his first step past the lady, she said, “Dear me! I can’t have you risk your life! Hear, take your glasses back, please,” She handed him something. It felt exactly like Rick’s old glasses. It even had the dent in the side from when he walked into a patient at the hospital.

“But be careful,” the lady said in a more menacing tone, “These aren’t like your every-day sort of glasses. They like to know whom they serve so keep’m to yourself for a while,” Rick went to put on his glasses to see what this lady was babbling on about, but as soon as he put them on, two things happened. First, the lady vanished, Second, he felt himself shiver as one does when the most vile of premonitions slithers down one’s spine. But as soon as this emotion came to Rick, it vanished. Leaving Rick alone, cold, and home bound.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Ryan, are you home?” Rick called into the house. It was five o’clock and, of course, he knew Ryan would be there with the babysitter, Vicky. Vicky was sixteen years old and had a horrible head of crimson hair. To compliment this hair, she wore an acid green tee shirt with blue jeans. Ryan ran in, hugging his father.

“She can go know, right and we can go visit mommy!” Ryan said with glimmers of hope in his eyes.

“Well, Vicky can go home,” Rick said, “But I’m afriad we can’t go visit mommy to tomorrow. Doctor’s rules, squirt,”

“But YOU’RE a doctor,” Ryan whined as he pointed this out, “You work at the hospital and you see mommy every day and I haven’t seen her in forever!” Ryan said, pouting. Neither of them heard the door slam shut as the babysitter, being paid by Rick who barely noticed her snatch her pay from his outstretched hand, left the house.

“Yes, but daddy hasn’t seen mommy yet either,” Rick calmly explained. It was true. Rick hadn’t the time to actually check on his beloved wife, but he had one of his fellow interns check on her every day.

And with that, Rick embraced his son as both of them fought the tears in their eyes back. They both missed Glenn very much, and they both new that a visit was in order no matter what Ryan’s grand parents thought.

“I’ll tell you what,” Rick said, still in tight embrace with his son, “I’ll call tomorrow, and if the doctors say its OK, we’ll go, OK?” Ryan nodded his head up and down in response, trying the few tears that managed to escape.

“OK, then,” Rick said, “Its on. And, tomorrow’s Saturday and I’m off. We can stay home and sleep in late and have some fun, OK?” Ryan nodded his head up and down again, this time with more vitality.

“Go up and get you pajamas on please,” Rick said. Ryan got up and slowly walked to the stairs. Rick slapped him son on the bottom and Ryan sped up the stairs, giggling again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rick peered in on Ryan after putting his coat away and eating dinner. He was sitting Indian-style on his bed, reading a picture book. Rick slowly crept into the room and plucked a pillow from Ryan’s bed. Before long, Rick and Ryan were engaged in a ferociously pillow pillow fight. Ryan had to use all of his strength just to parry Rick’s lightest taps. It wasn’t vary long until the little guy was completely tired out, which was Rick’s purpose. But just as Rick let his guard down, his son let lose one last pillow smack right in Rick’s face, sending his glasses toppling onto Ryan’s bed.

“Got your glasses, Papa!” Ryan said merrily as he held up something Rick thought must have been his glasses.

“Give them back, please,” Rick said, not caring too much. His son wouldn’t do anything too bad to his father’s glasses.

“Here you go!” Ryan said while handing him a pair of glasses. They felt rather small to Ryan. He put them on, only to find that they made everything blurry and they were much too small for him. Through these glasses, he could see Ryan’s fleshy face without any change in colors, meaning Rick was wearing his son’s glasses. But this change wasn’t for long, as she saw two blurrs that could only be his son’s arms lift something unto his face.

“Ooh, your glasses make everything look funny!” Ryan said as he wore the oversized glasses. Suddenly, Rick felt a strange shiver crawl down his spine as what happened earlier. He saw his son shake too, like he did when he caught a cold.

“Papa, I got the chills!” Ryan said.

“Well, lets trade back glasses and you can go to sleep you don’t wanna be sick when we go see Mommy, do you?” Ryan obediently gave back his father’s glasses. Rick slipped them on half-way so he could see, but without putting them on.

“G’night kid,”

“G’night Papa,” And with that, Rick turned off the lights.

Rick couldn’t explain it, but he felt awkward for the rest of the night. He kept having alternating blasts of chills and sweat attacks. Before long, Rick gave up on staying awake, so he went upstairs to bed. It wasn’t an hour later until Rick was sound asleep.