Eddie Creates Chaos #ShortStory #WritingCommunity

NightCafe

‘This was a really bad idea,’ said Angus.

‘We had to have a holiday,’ said Damaris. ‘He had to have a holiday.’

‘We should have gone self-catering.’

‘Yes, and I would have ended up doing all the catering.’

‘Well, let’s hope his psychic energy is in a quiescent phase.’

‘Last night was quiet, wasn’t it? We need to be positive, Angus. We’re on holiday, so let’s stop worrying and enjoy it.’

Eddie burst out of the bathroom, a four-foot ball of mischief with unruly black hair. ‘Ready!’ he cried, flinging out his arms. He danced around the bedroom. ‘Ready Eddie, Ready Eddie, Ready Eddie! That’s good, isn’t it? I’m Ready Eddie!’

‘Yes, very good,’ said Damaris. ‘Come on, time for breakfast.’

‘We’ve had bed, now we’re going to have breakfast,’ said Eddie, skipping out of the room. ‘Isn’t that great? Bed and breakfast in a Bed and Breakfast!’

‘Don’t shout, Eddie,’ said Angus, in hushed tones. ‘You’ll disturb people.’

Eddie did an exaggerated creep across the landing, his finger to his lips. ‘Ssssshhhh!’ he hissed. ‘Sssssssshhhhhh!’

Angus rolled his eyes. Damaris shot him a warning look.

Eddie kept up the ‘Sssssshhhh’ routine all the way down the stairs. He soon caught up with an old lady who was on her way down at a slower pace.

‘Sssssshhhh!’ he said, looking up at her.

She frowned. ‘What?’

‘I said “Sssssshhhh”!’

‘Eddie, stop it,’ said Angus.

‘I wasn’t making a noise!’ said the old woman.

‘I know,’ said Eddie. ‘I was just telling you in case you were thinking of making a noise.’

‘Eddie!’ snapped Angus.

But Eddie had leaped down the last five steps. He did a forward roll and burst into the breakfast room like the morning sun. He capered across to the bay window, where a party of old ladies sat at a round table, admiring the Brighton sea front.

‘This is absolutely the wrong place for us,’ Angus said irritably.

‘Ssshh,’ said Damaris.

‘Don’t you start,’ Angus muttered.

‘I want to sit in the window,’ announced Eddie. The old ladies looked alarmed as he crashed their party, a small tornado in a stripy T-shirt.

A well-upholstered woman in a flowery dress hurried out from the kitchen. ‘I’m afraid you can’t sit in the window; there are people there already.’

‘Then make them go away,’ said Eddie.

‘Eddie!’ exploded Angus.

‘I WANT TO SIT IN THE WINDOW!’ shouted Eddie, throwing himself on the floor. He lay on his back, kicking the laminated boards with his heels.

Damaris rushed up to him. ‘Eddie,’ she said gently, ‘there’s a table specially for us over there, look!’

Eddie looked where she was pointing, at a smaller table by a smaller window in the corner. ‘You can still see the sea. And if you’re a good boy now, we’ll go to the shops later and I’ll buy you a present.’

Angus rolled his eyes again.

Eddie stopped kicking. ‘For real?’

‘For real!’ smiled Damaris. ‘Now, come on, be a good boy.’

Eddie jumped up. ‘Yayyy!’ he cried. ‘A present! What will it be? Can I have a drone?’

‘Anything you like!’ said Damaris.

‘No!’ said Angus at the same time.

Eddie skipped around the room. ‘Yayyy! I’m having a drone!’ The old ladies’ disapproving gaze followed his progress, their eyes like dull marbles under caterpillar brows.

Once Eddie and his parents were seated at the smaller table, he got out his phone and started playing a game. This was mildly annoying, but at least he was no longer disrupting the whole room. The flowery woman took their orders, and Eddie told her quite politely that he would like bacon, egg, beans and a sausage.

Soon afterwards, she brought out the food and put it on the table. Angus and Damaris started eating. Eddie carried on playing.

‘Eat your breakfast, darling,’ said Damaris. ‘It’ll get cold.’

Eddie ignored her.

‘Eddie!’ said Angus.

‘Leave him,’ said Damaris, putting her hand on his arm. ‘He’ll eat it when he’s ready.’

Eddie looked up and beamed at her. ‘Ready Eddie!’ he said. ‘I can eat and play at the same time – watch!’

As he went back to his game, his sausage levitated off his plate and floated up to his mouth. He took a bite.

‘Oh no,’ groaned Angus. ‘I did hope this wouldn’t happen.’

The sausage stayed obligingly near Eddie’s face, waiting for him to finish his mouthful and take the next bite. The whole room had gone quiet, and all the old ladies were staring at him in shock and horror.

‘Eddie, stop it,’ said Damaris. ‘You’re frightening people.’

Eddie ignored her. When the sausage had gone, the egg took its turn, hovering in front of his face like a flying saucer.

‘Boys who levitate their food don’t get presents,’ Angus said sternly.

Eddie stopped playing and glared at him. The fried egg flew across the table and hit him in the face. He made an outraged noise and wiped it off with his napkin.

‘Right, that’s enough!’

‘Angus, be careful,’ warned Damaris.

But Angus was beyond being careful. He seized Eddie by the arm and dragged him away from the table.

Bad mistake. The next moment, everybody’s food was flying about. Eggs, beans, sausages and bacon danced in the air and came in to land on grey heads and wrinkled faces. Wedges of toast inserted themselves between false teeth in gaping mouths. Floating jugs poured orange juice onto pristine cardigans, and fountains of tea cascaded onto checked cloths.

It didn’t look like Eddie would be getting his drone after all.

Storyhound Lyra hunted down this ‘tail’ on her last astral trip to the Land of Story. She’s taken quite a shine to Eddie, so I expect we’ll be seeing more of him in the future!