Troll Brother

by P. Edward Auman

  ~~~

  “Holy crap!” Richard whispered just inside the door of Little Ricky’s room with his wife beside him after he was sure the boys had fallen to sleep. “Are you really okay with this?”

  He swung his hands around the room but particularly gestured to the carved-in and blue-painted markings Kile had made in his first 48 hours in the Johansson home.

  “It’s alright,” his wife told him softly. “What’s done is done. I talked to them both, and I think they get it. Let’s just leave it for now since we were going to re-carpet this next year anyway.”

  They exited the room and very slowly swung the door near closed again. Kile had awoken but not moved. He listened to Richard say he’d get going this summer on the wood flooring he’d promised her downstairs when they had moved in. Concerns over discipline were discussed too. Supposedly, as Richard was telling the story, Richard Sr. (aka: Grandpa Rick) would use a paddle or something on Junior when he’d been disobedient as a child and Richard suggested perhaps the same would be good for Little Ricky now, only that his little boy was so stubborn he probably wouldn’t feel it anyway.

  Laughter came from both Sara and Richard downstairs. “Oh your Dad never smacked you, and you know you wouldn’t do it either,” she said.

  “Of course not,” Richard conceded. “But if Grandpa was still alive he’d sure give that boy a stern lecture!”

  While the couple caught up downstairs, Kile lie wondering what to do. He decided to write another message back to the queen and get the Jogah, the little forest spirits, to send it off quickly that night. He needed advice, and he also wanted to know when they were going to be making the trade back with the little human.