A Promise is a Promise

This is today's story. I couldn't wait to post it. I think it's the best so far. Very excited to share it with you'ns. Without further ado; A Promise is a Promise (p.s. I'll continue to post the back log a couple at a time.)

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Dust danced in the sunbeam that crossed the room. The storm finally broke. 36 inches, three whole feet of white fluffy death fell since the previous morning. 10˚ was the high. it would have to warm up 22 degrees just to be freezing. And today, well, today it was 1pm and already 70 outside, or at least that is what the weatherclock said. Robert wouldn't know, he couldn't open the door.

It had been a long time since his parents went out. They were cranky and fighting. He gave them a good boy promise coupon book, then had to force them to use the hand drawn piece of paper in three different color inks. He signed them and kissed each as a promise not to be broken. A kid can only have so many unbreakables and this was the time to rid himself of one. He nearly kicked them out the door. The promise of good boy meant he could be left alone, no sitter, no going to aunt Tippy's with her stupid orange cat. He didn't know that not all orange cats could bounce on their tail. It didn't have to hurt him, and he wouldn't have kicked it if it hand't clawed him so hard.

They were convinced only after he showed them the lip prints on the paper. He'd used his mom's prettiest lipstick, Redgasim. An odd name but the color was perfect for the coupons.

He'd kissed them and they were his law.

They got out of the driveway and said they'd be home late and to not do anything bad. "I gave you the coupon, that's law". Then the snow started. It came down hard and made the roads hard to travel. His mom called and told him they were going to get a place for the night and try to be home early in the morning.

It didn't stop snowing, even a little. He'd called the pizza guy, his mom's stash was in the cookie jar under a stack of receipts buried by a mound of coupons. So, why he pondered was it called cookie jar? The pizza guy wouldn't come. Pickup only he said.

He had eaten the sandwich his mom left him. And he promised he wouldn't use the stove or the microwave. He wouldn't use the oven either because he assumed it was part of the stove. So he tried to ration what was left of the snack mix it didn't last long. He got hungry and found some pot roast from Tuesday, probably tuesday, but it didn't taste good cold but a promise was a promise so he took his mom's hair dryer and spent thirty minutes heating up the pot roast. It was a little bit warmer than the room but it was better.

The power went out sometime during Power Rangers Super Samuri, probably one of the best Power Rangers ever. And he was hungry. The dryer wasn't giving much heat now, it probably had to rest. But there was bacon, and mom's curling iron got hot, but there was no power.

Dad could plug things into his truck, and the keys were in the drawer. He wasn't going to drive it. That is what bad kids do, he just wanted to make some bacon.

It took him a bit to get the generator working, turns out he had to start the truck. He wrapped the bacon around the iron and it cooked. The second piece was successful as well. But he was getting a headache.

The lights went back and it was a good thing too, the curling iron was starting to smoke from the handle. He put the two pieces of bacon in a tortilla and decided to watch some more T.V.

He got bored and decided to have a bath. It was sunday night and he took baths on sunday nights. He filled the tub, and filled it to the top. Mom never put enough water in. He didn’t want bubbles so he didn’t add any. when he got in the water overflowed. That was neat so he did it again. And a third time but decided to stop. the water was getting cold and he knew he’d have to clean up every thing that spilled out.

It took most of the towels in the closet but he got the floor dry. As he went to bed he simply asked his bear where his parents were. He was tired of being good.

The next morning he woke up late for school. His mom always took him and he needed to be good, he promised, so he got up pulled two more tortillas out of the bag and went to open the door. It was stuck. Frozen shut. The back door too.

He’d broken his promise. He didn’t get to school on time and now he couldn’t get there at all. If he had at least made it he could apologize, he didn’t think to set the clock, his mom always woke him up. How could he have broken his promise? He even kissed the paper. How could he have done such a bad thing? He told them he’d be good. Is that why they didn’t come back. What else made them want to leave. This just proved that he was a bad boy he couldn’t keep his promise. He was good. He did his best.

Tears started to roll down his face and he lay down to watch the clock. Tomorrow he’d be able to get to school on time tomorrow. So he lay there not moving watching the little symbols. He got up only to pee. he had to make sure he made it on time tomorrow. At some point he got his bear, the boys would tease him if they knew he still had it. He’d put it back before he left. If he could get to school on time. not make any more mess…

The door began to rattle.

“I don’t care, break it if you have too”

It was mom. She sounded angry. She knew he broke his promise, she knew he'd been bad. He’d promised. I can’t cry, if I cry they’ll be mad.

The door burst open. “Oh you’re okay. We got trapped in the mountains. there was no way to call. Just a drive, to see the stars. Oh baby are you okay?”

He started crying. “I couldn’t get out”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I promised. I couldn’t get out. I tried, I really tried.”

“Oh honey, it’s okay you’re safe.”