The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past Read Free

out
inconsistencies and errors in other people’s thinking. “I’m already
here. Why are you yelling at me to come to dinner?” Zach smiled his
toothy jaunty sarcastic smile.
    Jay’s brow furrowed with annoyance as
he tended the grilled cheese sandwiches. “Zach, must you? You know
I wasn’t talking to you.”
    “ How would I know that?
You just yelled to ‘kids’, and last time I checked, I’m one of the
kids.” Zach either didn’t notice his father’s growing annoyance or
more likely was thoroughly enjoying it. Zach loved demonstrating
his intellect by coming up with new and inventive ways to annoy
those around him.
    “ As usual, you know what I
meant. And also as usual, stop being a pain.”
    Jay again made his way to the doorway
to yell for the kids and just as he let out the first bellow, Binny
rounded the corner into the kitchen. Whether she was still
irritated over Cassie’s theft of her mirror or annoyed at being
yelled at by her father wasn’t clear. Needless to say, her sour
mood had hardened and showed no signs of leaving anytime soon.
“GEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZ!!!! I KNOW! I HEARD YOU!”
    “ Don’t yell at me, Binah
Jordan.” Her father cautioned her. The use of her given name was a
tradition that parents all over the planet seemed to adopt to
demonstrate seriousness to their children. “I have no way of
knowing you’re coming if you don’t respond the first three times I
call you.”
    “ I was washing my hands,”
Binny offered with a smug look on her face, her eye roll serving as
a gentle punctuation to her comment. But Jay missed it as he’d
already moved on to his dinner ministrations. As Jay brought a bowl
of steamed cauliflower to the table, Cassie finally made her
appearance, striding in as if there were no chance dinner would
start until she made her grand entrance. This ‘inexcusable’
lateness wasn’t lost on Binny. “Where have you been?” she
asked.
    Cassie looked up at her sister and
shrugged. ”Dunno.”
    “ Well, I know what you
were doing. You were in my room going through my stuff.”
    “ No I wasn’t!” Cassie
screeched. Cassie’s escalated her anger especially quickly when
confronted with judgments from her older siblings.
    “ This isn’t the first time
you’ve done it either. I’ve been keeping track.”
    “ I didn’t touch your
stupid mirror!!”
    “ You left it on the
sidewalk. Someone could have stepped on it. YOU’RE! SO!
RUDE!”
    “ Girls, stop the
bickering. And eat your cauliflower.”
    “ She took my mirror,”
Binny complained.
    “ Binny, I mean it. I’m not
interested. Eat your vegetables so I can give you your grilled
cheese.”
    The kids served themselves. Binny took
a bite. “It’s cold.”
    “ Ah shoot,” Jay collected
the vegetables back into the serving bowl. “Sorry. Give me a
second.” Jay put the serving dish filled with cauliflower into the
microwave and added “you know kids, I could heat up your meal with
my heat vision if I wanted to. I just choose not to.”
    “ You don’t have super
powers.” Binny chided.
    “ Yes he does,” Cassie
disagreed.
    “ Don’t be
dumb.”
    “ SHUT UP!”
    “ Binny, stop calling your
sister dumb. And Cassie is absolutely correct. I do have super
powers. I’m not sure why you don’t believe me. But I suppose it’s
better that way, since I’m not supposed to use them unless I’m
doing my job fighting crime.”
    Zach piped up, “I thought you were an
illustrator, not a super hero. Am I confused?” Zach’s eyebrows were
raised as far as they would go in mock surprise.
    Jay continued pedantically, “It’s
true, I do draw for a living, but when called upon I also fight
crime. Where do you think I get my inspiration for drawing
crimefighters? It’s hard leading a double life but someone has to
take on the responsibility of making the world a better
place.”
    Binny’s eyes rolled
furiously.
    BEEP. The cauliflower was hot
again.
    “ While my responsibility
is fighting crime,” he