Sortie / Day One / Karl's Rage
You stoke Karl’s anger, pushing him to lash out.
His face twists into a snarl and he leaps at Sara, tackling her to the ground. Her towel is lost immediately, and the two of them wrestle awkwardly on the carpeted floor of the hallway. She is eleven, and he cannot be much older than thirteen, so neither is a physical powerhouse; the result is a tangle of flailing limbs and half-swallowed yelps of pain.
This comes an abrupt end when a masculine, adult voice booms out: "Karl! Sara! Cut that out right now!"
| Mr. Penrose is a respectable-seeming man in his forties, rarely without a suit. His blond hair and moderate complexion lack the fragile quality that tends to show up in his children’s features. Those must have come from his wife.
He has the beginnings of mid-life paunch across his middle, and his hairline has lost a few battles, though not the war. Yet there is strength in his arms, and a sureness in his movements that makes him hard to call anything other than handsome. |
A blond man in his forties, who can only be the children's father, takes a few strides up the hall and pries the fighting siblings apart. "Karl, go take a shower and get ready for school!"
Karl whines, "But da-ad, she…"
"I don't want to hear it, Karl. Go."
As her father's attention was on her brother, the naked Sara attempted to wriggle from her father's grasp, but found his grip on her arm to be iron.
"As for you, little miss, we have a guest in the house, Derek’s dorm mate, so there can be no running around the house naked."
"Dad, I wasn't. Karl..."
"Shush, Sara. Go get dressed. Pancakes for breakfast if you are quick enough. You are taking the bus today."
"The bus? But I hate.."
Her father ignores her plea, manhandling her around to point her toward her bedroom door before slapping her playfully but soundly on her bare buttocks. "Scoot!"
You...