Supposed to be flash fiction, if not a short story. So, time to wrap this up. I know I’ll have to edit the eff out of Amelia 1 as that was written four glasses of wine before my wife just got home, so it’ll go from R to PG. The three parts together, about 2200 words, total, will be a part of our next anthology, AMELIA.

Thanks to Page Zaplendam for help on some of the family bits; been a very long time since I’ve had kids at home.

Tired, dirty, and covered in sweat, even for cooler fall weather in Cornwall, Charli opened the front door of their home and hung up his jacket before getting scolded for water all over the floor.

“Daddy!” little Eleanor shouted, running at him to be swept up in his arms.  “Missed you!”

“I’ve missed you, too, First Girl,” he smiled, “even though I was only gone since this morning.”

“And I’ve missed you as well,” Amelia said, coming around from the kitchen with a wooden spoon in one hand and the other on her swollen belly.  Their fourth child.  “You work too hard, Charli.”

“We’re rebuilding Britain, as you know full well,” he laughed, carrying his daughter over to kiss his wife on her cheek.  In front of the kids, they tried to behave themselves.  Tried.  “After all, you did start this counter-revolution.”

“People took pictures of me,” she flicked at her bobbed hair she still dyed her trademark purple, “and listened to a few things I said.  I’m a mum and housewife now and don’t need or want the spotlight.”

“I…” he began.  There was a crash and yell from upstairs, followed quickly by sock feet thumping their way down.

“Mum!” Artor shouted, “Hal broke my racetrack!”

“What?” Charli demanded.  “The wooden one I just made for you kids, two days ago!  Hal!”

Much slower, their youngest came down the steps.  “Yes, father?”

“Your brother just said you broke something that belongs to all of you,” Charli said, trying to hold onto his composure and wishing he’d stopped for a pint or two on the way home.  “Is that right?”

While they often hedged the truth, lying to their parents was just not done.

“Boof and I were playing,” the lad began.  Boof was their Westie-Husky mix.  “I sort of stepped on the wooden track.”

“But then you turned around and laughed!” Artor cried.

“Hal?” Amelia asked in a very careful tone.

“I did.”

“Grounded,” she announced.  “No electronics for a week.  And apologize, now.”

Sometimes it bothered Charli that his wife would take control like this, but a woman ruled at home just as he did outside of it.  It was a complicated new world they were building.

“I’m sorry, Art.” Hal put his hand out and, after a look to his father, his brother took it.

“Now go fix it,” Charli said.  “If you need help, well, I am an engineer, after all.”

“Yes, father.”  Hal turned and plodded up the steps.  Their mother took little Artor’s shoulders and guided him to the kitchen, whispering something about a cookie.  She spoils these lads when she’s not ruling them.

Later that evening, after Amelia got sick again from their next child, her convinced it was a girl, she drank weak tea and he an ale, both staring out at the rain.

“I expect stupid drama at the construction site,” he said, “not so much at home.  It’s why I need you so much.”

“Even in college,” Amelia laughed, snuggling close, “you were so binary!  This or that!  One or the other!  That look on your face when you first came with me to a protest… Yes, England for the English, but so many different views to get there!  I could tell you were totally lost!”

“Which, I guess, was why you had that sign in one hand, then took mine with your other?”

“Love at first sight is a cliché, Charli,” she said very quietly.  “But that does not mean it’s not true.  When I saw you in the lecture hall, that first time, I knew you would matter.”

“Me?  Matter?” He took a drink.  “You are basically the one who overthrew the government!  I’ve never had the King on the phone, Dear Wife!”

“I only did that twice.”  She sounded tired.  “And I’m a mum now.  Let me rest.”

“The most important job in the world,” Charli ghosted to the air.  “And you’re mine, Amie; mine forever, before God and Country.”

“Deus…” She started to snore, just a little.