Work Day
It was currently 1:30pm Monday afternoon and the children were home because of an in-service day at school. Eddie was working, or least trying to work, on an important piece for work that his boss demanded be in her inbox by 3:00 that afternoon. It was a piece that really interested him about a pharmaceutical head that he'd interviewed last week who was maliciously driving up the prices of life saving medication- he was really into it. He was quickly typing away when he heard a thump in the living room, he ignored it and kept typing but then there was a louder thump.
“Daaad!” Lasher's voice called.
“Don't call Dad!” He could hear Carnage hiss.
“We better check that out.” Venom suggested.
“Yeah.” Eddie sighed standing up.
Entering the living room they saw Lasher, Scream and Phage perched on the couch watching Carnage and Agony rolling around on the floor and doing absolutely nothing to intervene. Carnage with a handful of Agony's hair and Agony biting down on Carnage's shoulder all while they both hit and kicked at each other. He couldn't tell what the problem was when Venom realized they were fighting over the TV remote.
“Hey! Hey! Hey!” Eddie shouted trying to draw their attention away from each other.
He had Sleeper in a carrier on his front so it vastly limited his range of motion, the baby being very clingy lately and crying if they weren't in the same room leaving them no choice but keep him with them. Venom conjuring a carrier letting him keep his arms free to write. Venom reached out and pried the siblings off each other, grabbing the remote with a third tendril and holding it high out of the way. The two of them continued thrashing before the realized they were no longer in contact and then glared at Eddie and Venom for breaking them up.
“Why are you fighting?” Eddie asked sternly.
“She started it.”
“No, he started it!”
“We don't care who started it.” Venom cut them off.
“Carnage grabbed the remote out of Scream's hand so he could turn the channel.” Agony explained.
“I don't want to watch Kung Fu Panda again!” Carnage defended himself.
“Well, they do and you have to let them because they're little!” Agony argued referring to their other siblings, Agony was the second oldest after Carnage and took it very seriously.
“We watch it all the time!”
Eddie could sort of sympathize with the kid, they really did watch it all the time.
“Watch the movie first, then Carnage gets to pick.” Venom said finally and V's word was pretty much always law in this house.
Carnage didn't look happy but the arrangement seemed to placate all of them for the time being. He sat in front of his computer and really buckled down, within a few minutes he was on fire again tearing through his points and sources. He was on the phone with one of his sources to get some clarification on something when Lasher wandered in with his arms full of coloring supplies. That was okay, he thought, Lasher was the quietest and most polite out of all their kids so it was alright if he wanted to color in here with them. Glancing at the the clock, he had an hour left to finish this article.
For a while everything was going great, Eddie was working and Lasher was silently coloring on the floor next to him. The only sounds were the clicking of the keyboard and the scratching of crayons against paper. Sleeper was still in the carrier staring up at him intently, just watching his different facial expressions as he was deep in thought and every now and then he'd make a silly face at the infant drawing out an infectious smile. He was so enthralled in his writing that he hadn't noticed that the crayon scratching had stopped which in hindsight should have been a warning.
“Why does it rain?” Lashed asked looking up at him.
“Because the clouds get filled with water.” He answered not looking away from the screen.
“Why?”
“Because when water evaporates it goes into the sky.”
“What's evaporate?”
“It's when water disappears.”
“Why does it do that?”
“Because it has to go somewhere.”
“Why?”
“Because if it didn't then there'd be water everywhere.”
“But there's water everywhere it rains.”
“Only for a little while.”
“Does all the water go back to the clouds?”
“No, some of it goes to the plants.”
“Why?”
Eddie let out a brief sigh before turning in his chair.
“Sweetheart, I'm doing something important. Is it okay if we ask questions later?”
Lasher nodded and went back to coloring quietly.
Eddie was on the phone again when a shrill, ear splitting scream assaulted their senses pulling Sleeper awake and into a crying fit. The woman on the phone asked him if everything was okay and he assured her there was nothing wrong as Venom left him to go check on whatever that was. He had successfully calmed Sleeper down, ended the phone call and properly cited some sources when his youngest daughter came running in absolutely distraught- he had 30 minutes left to get this thing to his boss.
“Daddy! There was a spider in the bathroom and I just wanted Dad to get rid of it but they ATE it!”
Venom seeped back into him with an air of feigned innocence and a complete lack of remorse.
“I thought you were scared of spiders?” He asked her.
“I am but I don't want them to die!” She cried.
“I swear they get this whole compassion-for-every-living-being thing from you.”
Eddie mentally shooed them away, annoyed that they were making his afternoon more difficult. He cursed whoever had the idea to cancel school today and entertained the idea of letting Venom give them a little talk. Not a fatal talk of course, just a threatening one. If he didn't get this article in on time he'd be in a lot of trouble and he would be the only one to have to deal with that. Scream clutched his jeans looking for some sort of justice for the tragic end of the little spider.
“Darling sometimes things pass away and there's nothing we can do.” He didn't know exactly how to explain the concept of meaningless death in an uncaring universe to a six year old.
The clock was still running, 3:00pm getting ever closer and his article still unfinished in front of him.
“Can we have a funeral for it?” She looked up at him with sad white eyes.
Without thinking about it he promised her whatever she wanted to let him finish his article and she gloomily left him alone. Eddie hastily put on the finishing touches of what would just have to suffice because it was 2:54pm and he was out of time. Not his most stunning work and he wouldn't be winning any Pulitzers for it but he sent it to his boss and out of his life nonetheless.
That evening after dinner, in the backyard he officiated a funeral service for a spider whose only mistake was taking up residence in the Brock home.