The Table
Monday evenings in the Batch kitchen were often lively. Maybe others would use different words, like chaotic or wild, but Beth stuck with the concept of lively... full of energy and activity, yes, but also full of life.
"Mom!"
She heard her name being called by multiple urgent voices. She continued her stirring at the stove while she turned to answer whoever was addressing her.
Hunter got his question in first. "Mom, where are my cleats?" He peered under the table for only a second before passing through to exit out the other end of the kitchen.
"I put them outside, you need to clean them for tomorrow. And hey!" She quickly spoke to catch his attention before he disappeared. His shaggy head peeked back from around the corner. "Get your other brothers and start setting the table please."
She could barely hear his grunt of acknowledgement before another of her sons piped back up with calling her name.
"Mooom."
"Yes, Wrecker, what do you need?"
"What's a square root?"
He was sitting at the table behind her, where she'd insisted he stay until his homework was finished, knowing he wouldn't get it done later in the week with soccer season starting up again. Tech was across from him; he'd fortunately decided to study of his own accord.
"You can't cheat, Wrecker," Tech answered before she could. "Ms. Ti told us about square roots this morning."
"I'm not cheating," Wrecker pouted, "I don't remember."
"It literally says it right here." Tech practically crawled across the table to point at Wrecker's paper, but Wrecker snatched it away and waved it out of reach.
"I didn't ask for your help, Tech, I asked Mom."
"I'm not helping, I'm just saying the explanation is right there. If you just read...."
"I did read!" Wrecker's voice was starting to raise, upset. Even though Beth was now trying to drain the spaghetti in the sink, she still interjected through the plume of steam before things got too contentious.
"Wrecker, baby, why don't you read the explanation out loud and then we can see what part is confusing you. Tech, get off the table."
Wrecker brought the paper back down and started to read off the math problem, but he only managed three words before Hunter came back in, followed by Echo.
"...he's even coaching the teams at the high school, too..." Echo was saying.
Hunter hummed thoughtfully in response. "We need to do some of those moves we came up with, if there's a scrimmage."
"Wait, what?" Wrecker abandoned his paper to participate in this new conversation. All hope of squeezing in some homework time before dinner was gone. Beth just sighed as she poured the noodles back into the pot.
"The new P.E. teacher," explained Echo. "He's going to coach our soccer team, too."
"So we need to impress him at practice tomorrow," Hunter added, "or else he won't give us the right positions."
Beth cleared her throat, in the last steps of the dinner prep, but only getting Echo's attention.
"Where's Crosshair?"
"Shower."
She huffed. "Right now?"
"We were practicing our goals, he got all muddy."
"Does he know it's almost dinner?"
"Yeah, he said he'd be quick."
"Okay. Well get Hunter over here, I still need the table set."
She handed him some silverware but left the stack of plates on the counter for Hunter to handle. Echo was only able to carry so much with his one arm.
"...we could get there early, so he sees us already practicing," Hunter was telling Tech.
"That won't be too obvious?" Tech asked. "We don't want him to think we're showing off."
"Isn't that what we're doing though?" asked Wrecker.
"Yeah, but we can't be obvious...."
"We'll just say our mom dropped us off early," said Hunter. "You can do that, right Mom?"
"Eww." Echo had one of the forks held up in the light, changing the subject before Beth had a chance to respond. It happened often enough where she didn't even notice. "This has crust or something on it."
"Who was on dishwashing duty last night?" Beth asked.
"Wrecker," everyone chimed together.
Wrecker folded his arms over his chest defensively. "I don't know why we can't just buy a new dishwasher. I hate doing it by hand."
Beth brought the pot of spaghetti over to the table. "Because it costs a lot of money that I don't have right now."
"But you have a job."
She tried to keep an exhausted sigh from escaping as she went back to grab the salad bowl; she'd probably explained how money and budgets worked fifty different ways by now. It was a hard concept for ten-year-old boys to understand, especially when it seemed like their friends always got new things, whether it was toys or dishwashers.
"Yes, my job pays for this house and all this food and those new soccer shoes... So it's going to take me a while to save up more or to fix the dishwasher. Sorry, baby, but I'm going to need you to keep chipping in, and make sure you're not missing any crust next time."
"Mom, can you take us to practice early tomorrow?" Hunter was, unsurprisingly, still hung up on the soccer thing. He'd hardly thought of anything else for the past week.
"Why do you need to go early?" she asked as she tossed the salad. "Just practice here before we go. And I still need you to get the plates, please."
"But we need to impress the coach."
"You'll impress him just fine during the actual practice. Tech, dear, put the homework away now, it's time to eat."
Tech put a protective hand over the papers splayed in front of him. "It's not homework, it's our goal stats from the summer."
"But Mom," Hunter kept going, hovering just beside her as she brought the last of the food to the table, "Wrecker still needs to work on goalkeeping and Crosshair's not a fast runner. We're not perfect yet, but if the coach sees us getting there early and working hard, then..."
"Hun, you're not supposed to be perfect, that's the point of practice. It's the coach's job to help you all get better."
The sudden sound of a sniffle caused Beth to turn in alarm. Wrecker had been uncharacteristically quiet, though she unfortunately hadn't noticed with all the varying conversations. And now she found him sulking in his chair, lower lip wobbling and eyes furrowed toward the ground.
"Wrecker, baby..." she started reaching out, but then another sudden sound came, this one much louder and more jarring. The sound of dishes crashing to the floor.
"What the..." Beth whirled to find Echo surrounded by half a dozen shattered plates. Her heart sunk at his embarrassed face, his one arm hovering over them as if he'd tried his best to catch them before falling. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from freaking out. She would never lose her temper with the boys; she'd made that promise a long time ago. And though she'd yet to break it, sometimes it was really difficult.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Echo said quickly, a slight shake in his voice. "I was just--
"Trying to help, I know. Don't move, you're barefoot, I don't want you to cut yourself." She turned to Hunter and spoke with a measured calmness, "Go get my rubber gloves and a broom from the garage. You were supposed to help with the plates, so you're going to clean this up."
"Yes, Momma." Hunter hurried off.
"I didn't mean to," Echo was still apologizing. He wasn't on the verge of tears like Wrecker, but he was still visibly upset.
Wrecker. Beth turned back to find the other boy had disappeared. She sighed; she'd have to deal with that mess after this one. She reached out a hand to Tech, who was sitting wide-eyed at the other end of the table.
"Tech, dear, get your stats or whatever and come here. Careful, there's shards over in the corner there."
She helped guide Tech away from the table, pointing out things for him to step over, until he was finally free and could put his things away in the other room. By then, Hunter had returned wearing her gloves and getting to work on sweeping it all up.
"Echo, get the trashcan from behind you, please. Be careful."
"I'm sorry, Momma. I was going to help, I swear." Hunter looked up at her as he worked. She ruffled his hair.
"I know. And accidents happen. It's alright. Just please get this cleaned up. Carefully. I'm going to check on your brother. Do you know why he was crying?"
The two boys shook their heads. She sighed for the tenth time that evening and set off to find Wrecker. With every step, she had to fight the urge to feel worse about herself. How could she not have seen her poor baby feeling so sad until it was too late? How could she not have noticed Echo trying to take on more than he could handle? She used to be so good at keeping a eye on them all, but lately it seemed like it was becoming a little too much. Weren't things supposed to get easier as they grew older?
The door to one of the shared bedrooms was mostly closed, just a crack giving Beth some insight into what was happening inside. She could hear Wrecker's sniffles first, and upon getting closer, she then heard the soft voice of Crosshair comforting him.
"...you know he didn't mean it like that. Just because you aren't perfect, doesn't mean you aren't good."
"But I'm not good at anything," Wrecker responded in a wobbly voice. "I can't do math, I can't clean the dishes, I can't block the goals..."
"Okay, so that's three things you're not good at. There's like a million other things you can do in the world, and I bet you're not going to suck at all of them. You just gotta keep trying things."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"I don't know. But you're not going to find out by sitting in here moping...."
Beth backed away, sensing their moment was coming to a close already and not wanting to ruin it by being discovered eavesdropping. She carried a smile with her back into the kitchen, where the other boys were just finishing their chore, including Tech.
"I'm going to replace the dishes, Mom," said Hunter, stooping to wrap up the now-full trash can.
"Hun, you don't--"
"It's okay, it was my fault. I should've put them on the table when you told me. I have enough allowance saved, and Tech found the same set on Ebay for really cheap."
Beth couldn't help but let out a little chuckle. "Okay... Or, we could take the opportunity to get something different? Gosh, I've had those plates since I went off to college. I'm pretty sure my mom found them at a yard sale, honestly. It's time for something new."
She walked over and drew Hunter in for a hug, holding out an arm for Echo to join as well.
"What happened?"
Crosshair finally joined the group, already in his pajamas and hair still damp from the shower. Wrecker was close behind.
"Hey, good news, Wreck!" Hunter wiggled out from his mom's embrace. "Can't wash the dishes if we don't have any dishes to wash!"
That sent a wave of light laughter around the room.
"Awesome! Thanks Echo!" Wrecker threw up his hand for a high-five while Echo playfully rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I totally did it on purpose. Just to help you out, buddy."
"Alright boys," Beth snapped them to attention. "How about we dig out the leftover paper plates from your birthday party and start eating before the food gets cold."
Tech went rummaging in the cupboard for the plates while Hunter took the trash outside and the others gathered themselves around the table to dig in. Beth grabbed hold of Wrecker, though, for a quick hug of his own.
"You okay, baby?" she mumbled in his ear. He was almost as tall as she was, a fact that took her by surprise every time she remembered it. "I didn't mean to ignore you earlier. We can still go over that math problem tonight."
"It's okay," he said, pulling away with a genuine smile. "Cross said he'd help me."
He joined the others at the table and Beth took a moment to just take them all in. Her lively batch of sons. Talking over each other, laughing and teasing, fighting over the garlic bread, carrying on as friends....
Maybe she didn't need to be so involved in everything they did now. She would always be there, of course. But now they were old enough to start realizing they also had each other, too. What an exciting time for them, she thought, finally taking her place at the table and laughing right along with them.