Soul Mates by Thomas Melo Read Free Book Online Page A

“dinner”), you understand. It was the act of sitting down together as a family and sharing a meal together that was imperative to this nuclear family. It was something that had grown outmoded, what with everyone’s busy schedules in Tyler’s quaint suburban community of St. Anastasio. Not the Swansons. No, Cindy made sure that regardless of how busy their lives got, “this family will sit down to dinner together every night.” So they did.
    On this particular night, there was tension, and Tyler could feel it. His parents were being unusually quiet, and every so often Tyler could see his father and mother glance at each other briefly, as if to pose the question: “shall I start, or would you like to?” Tyler was finding that he was beginning to miss the run-of-the-mill softball questions that his parents would toss his way: “How was school today?”, “Did you learn anything interesting?”, “How is everything with your friends?”, “Is anyone giving you trouble?” Then his parents would turn a similar line of questioning towards one another, asking about each other’s work day and finding out what was new, if anything. Usually there wasn’t, which was just fine with a conservative family like the Swansons. Change usually meant that bad things were on the horizon. Just like tonight. Ray and Cindy had something that they needed to nip in the bud right quick. 
    This tension was making Tyler less hungry than he already was. There was no time for hunger to nag at him, he devoted all of his time to thinking about Lilith. He played back their kiss in his head over and over and over again, focusing on different nuances of the recollection in his mind’s eye each time. It never got boring to him. It was almost as if h e –
    “Tyler, your mother and I want to speak with you about something,” Ray started. As if this was Cindy’s cue, she put her fork down and wiped her mouth with her napkin and waited for her husband to continue. Tyler didn’t say a word. He looked up at his father and sat there waiting to hear what his parents wanted to talk to him about. “And I’m only going to say this one time. I’m going to ask you something and I don’t want you to lie to me. The  worst  thing that you can do to your mother and me is lie to us. So don’t you do it, ok?” Ray warned.
    “Ok, I won’t,” Tyler promised.
    Now that the warning was out of the way, Cindy thought it was safe for her to pitch in and take her husband’s side. Ray was undisputedly the disciplinarian, which he found to be unfair because it made him look like an ogre and his wife, Cindy, look like the hero. In fact, they had many “discussions” about this matter. Did they argue about it? Not so much. Did it ever get a little heated? Perhaps, but that’s normal, and this married couple epitomized the word normal…whatever it means. This was Cindy’s way of showing her husband, and most importantly, Tyler, that she was on Ray’s team, but still enabled her to stealthily take more of a wingman’s approach. 
    “Remember what your father said, Tyler. Now, did you take your bb gun out and use it without our permission while we weren’t home?” Cindy asked. Tyler held fast for the better part of about ten seconds. He contemplated lying about it, but there were two factors which ultimately persuaded him not to: First, if his parents were asking him this question, it was most likely for a  reason ; some “t” left uncrossed or “i” left undotted when he was cleaning up after himself and his friends. The other reason, which would make any parent’s heart melt a bit, was that if he lied to his parents, beyond being angry with him, they would be  disappointed  with him. There were these factors, but anyone with half a brain would know that if you asked a child if they were guilty of something and they pause for ten seconds before giving you an answer…no, if they pause for  two  seconds before giving you an answer: all signs