Caleb had his ears pasted to the door as he tried to eavesdrop into his father's conversation. It was a Sunday afternoon, and he had all the time in his hands.

"There's something wrong," he heard his father's exasperated voice.

He heard a muffled answer.

"No, I don't know! I'm hoping you can tell me that... We haven't seen each other since twenty years. You can't expect me to know anything. I left that work"

His father's voice was an octave higher than usual, and it gave Caleb chills.

His father wasn't one to be scared easily.

Caleb heard movements inside. The sound of footsteps wasn't as heavy his father's. All the late-night sneaking out had taught him to recognize at least that much. There was some more muffled conversation that he couldn't quite decipher clearly. He took it as a cue that the talk would soon be over and walked away. He sat down quietly in the living room and pretended to work on his laptop. He quickly slid his earphones in when he heard the click of the door opening. Teresa had taught him this useful trick.

He heard his father's heavy stomping come closer to him. A shadow crept over him, but he ignored it. He continued to act immersed in his pretence work.

"Caleb," his father grumbled at him.

Caleb was busy typing away with non-existent music playing in his ears.

"CALEB!" Zack Greene shouted impatiently.

Caleb slowly removed his earphones with a feigned surprise. There was no way he could let his father know he had tried to listen in. That would go against his plan of spying on in his father.

"What are you doing?" the old man asked sternly.

"No-nothing. Project actually," Caleb stammered.

Nice one. A twenty-three-year-old man doing projects is the lie you go for. How intuitive.

Beads of nervous sweat broke out in his forehead, and he mentally asked himself how Teresa did her job. She was a spy in layman's language, after all. Lying was her trait.

The six-feet tall man with short black hair (you could see streaks of grey lining his head now) wasn't curious any further. The always suspicious man had stopped being curious for a while now. His son exposed the cute, gummy smile at him. His light brown eyes so unlike him shined in the light of the afternoon sun. Zack Greene only grunted and walked out of the house. Caleb heard his father start the car and leave.

Just for confirmation, Caleb checked outside the windows. The car had gone.

"Time to work"

He ran into his father's room and looked about. It was a neat place, as usual. But it was too neat.

The bed looked to be made with extra care. There was not a single line of fold on the bedsheet. The desk was completely organized. Not a single strand of paper was lying astray. Even the carpet was placed at a 90-degree angle from where he stood. The whole room was a royalty compared to Caleb's own. Hell, he still had dirty laundry strewn about.

Caleb smirked.

"Dad why would you try so hard?" he scoffed.

He knew his father's mind well. He had turned extra careful just so that no one could leave the room undetected. A person sneaking around in here was likely to slip on the carpet and tilt it at an odd angle or leave a small, tiny fold on the bed. It was clever, just likely of his father.

Caleb walked carefully about the room. His observing eyes scrutinized every corner, and he licked his full lips out of habit. He saw nothing that hadn't been there since the past ten years or so. The desk, placed beside the window at the farthest corner of the room was dust-free. Touching it would be suicide because he would be unable to keep everything back into the exact place. He'd rather shove everything inside. A small, regular-sized bed was present next to the study table. There was nothing beneath it. The bed was pinned to the floor, with no space below it. There was a bookshelf at the opposite side of the study and three big cardboard boxes beside it at a corner. The boxes would probably contain old useless stuff that had to be thrown away.

Everything was normal. Nothing new.

Maybe it doesn't have to anything new!

His eyes lit up at the thought and he quickly but with care walked to the boxes. He checked his watch. He had a maximum of one hour until his father came back. He needed only half.

He scrambled carefully through the boxes. One contained old, rusty toys that he and Teresa used to play with as kids. As much as he wanted to go through them and get lost in memories, he restrained his urge. The second box had clothes and photographs. What use were those to him? He had hoped to see something worthwhile in the last one, but all he found were nails and some carpentry tools.

Caleb got up with a taste of chagrin at the back of his mouth. He didn't know what he had expected to find, but it definitely wasn't something as casual and unsuspecting as this.

"Shit!" he grunted out of frustration and kicked at the second box before him.

The force of his leg caused the box to topple over. Clothes and old photos sprawled out, leading a fuming Caleb to now turn into a panicky one. He rushed to the things and as expected, began stuffing them inside the box with little care of neatness.

He picked the clothes together and dumped them into the box. Then he began putting the old photographs inside the box one by one.

Did I overthink all this?

No. Caleb Greene barely ever overthought anything. He was either always right or always wrong. He suspected he was right in this one.

His father had turned even more reticent ever since Teresa had left for Sydney. He had become like a teenager going through puberty. He barely came out of his room any more and talked to Caleb, and when he did, it was to leave for some unattended business. Caleb sometimes wondered if his father even remembered he existed until he saw him. Of course, his father did speak to him occasionally. Usually, they consisted of interrogative questions on what Caleb was doing or to shout at him for not being at work on the weekend. Caleb hated the distrust his father had always carried towards him. The only reason that he had not already moved out like Teresa was because he was afraid his old man might become lonely.

Every father needed his child beside him as he got old. Teresa had never been so thoughtful about these matters, yet she was the shining glory of the household. Stupid elder sibling shit.

Caleb had heard his father talk plentiful of times in his room, but he thought it was over the phone. He had even seen his dad lock the room whenever he left it. His windows were locked too, now that he cared to look at them. It was like his father was scared of some interloper intruding into his room. Caleb had realized later that someone visited his father every week or so because he had heard the other man. While his father had been audible, Caleb could barely ever get in a word of the other fellow. He was too quiet and calm. Caleb was worried his father had gotten into some weird trouble.

And a gut feeling told him that Teresa was somehow, connected to all of this.

Caleb, too deeply immersed into his thoughts, pricked his finger onto a sharp edge of a photo frame.

"Ack!"

He picked it up again and saw how damaged it was. The back of the frame was bent and scratched. There were dark red dried splotched in the middle. Caleb didn't want to imagine it to be blood. He noticed scrawny writing at a corner of the back of the frame. He squinted to read it.

Caleb walked for the first time!

- Catherine

His heart hammered excitedly as he read the name Catherine. He turned it over in anticipation.

He saw five people in the picture. One was a bald man with distinct freckles over his cheeks. He had an arm around a beautiful woman with light brown and wavy hair falling around her shoulders. Another arm was placed, around the shoulders of a younger man. The two men were probably brothers. Anyone could have noticed the likeness between the two men with brown freckles strewn on their faces. It didn't dim the happiness and handsomeness of the two men. The woman was a scalding beauty.

The picture made him smile. Until he focused on the other two.

A small girl had her arms wrapped around the neck of the young man who was holding her up. The woman carried what looked like a one or two-year-old baby in her arms. It was Teresa and Caleb. He didn't recognize any of the adults in the picture, but the chemistry was clear. The young man holding up Teresa wasn't the father. It was the balding man in between, and the woman was the wife as she was the only woman visible.

The young man looked like he was still in his twenties.

Confusion ran in his mind. Why wasn't his frame in the picture? The woman was Catherine but then why was her husband different? Where was his father? Who were these people? A million unanswered questions entered his brain.

Maybe he locks his room and windows because it is dangerous for him and me.

Caleb tucked the photograph into the front pocket of his sweatshirt and cleared everything up. He left the room as it was and headed upstairs to his own. When he opened the door, a wave of stench hit his nose. He frowned when he saw chips all over the bed and his clothes hanging out of his closet. When did this happen?

He made a mental note to clean the room one of the days.

Sitting on the dirty bed, he pulled out his mobile and swept through his contacts. His finger lingered over the one name he was thinking of reaching out to. He couldn't do this alone, and he needed help from the right person.

He began hyperventilating when he imagined those green eyes and the silky dark brown hair flowing with the wind in slow motion. Already regretting his decision, he pressed on 'Call'. He tapped his legs in a fidgety manner as he waited for the call to be picked up. After two entire rings, he heard his call being picked up. Caleb hastily put the phone to his ears and spoke immediately without waiting for a 'Hello?'

"H-hey Edward? I've got som-something to show you," he painfully stuttered.

*****

Hey so a Friday Update! This week I have been upto date with my updates yay.

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