Shadowed Driver Driving Pt. 1 (Let's try this again.😅)

Hi all! I apologize once again for the previous gravity of this story. I brought it back updated and I actually quite like it this way!!

Once again I mention, that it would be helpful if you have read the first and second WFS books (and preferably the Wingfeather Tales) but I think you could get by without having read Wingfeather Tales.

Please let me know your thoughts and guesses in the comments below! It helps improve my writing (and it's fun to see what you think will happen!) Also, don't be afraid to ask me if you don't know how to say someone's name! Hope you like it!

A little boy sat looking out the window of an apartment above the streets of Dugtown. He gazed at the bustling carts and vendors and watched as a rat swiped a plumyum from a vendor’s table.

“Och! Even the rats in this town are no good!” a woman said as she came up behind him.

“I can’t believe you’re even looking out this window! It’s filthy!” She looked down at the boy’s white, blond hair that was suspiciously dusty. “And so are you! Where have you been?”

“I was playing Stranders in the alley with Lorix Nebb.” the boy told his mother, somewhat shamefully.

She sighed. “Listen… I know you were just trying to have fun but you need to be careful in the alley. There are many dangerous people here in Dugtown, and outside of it. Believe me, I know…”

“Mama? What makes those people bad?” he asked full of innocence.

“Well, they’re not necessarily bad. Everyone has the possibility to do bad things and there is a desire in us that wants to make us do them.” She paused “But many people when they encounter a problem, they turn to these bad things to solve their problem or make them feel better.”

“And does it?” the boy asked, which snapped the woman’s gaze back to him, for it was she who had now been gazing out the window.

“No. It doesn’t” she replied sadly. “My son, I want to teach you something and it is this: Whenever you encounter a problem, turn to those you love and who love you. Don’t push them away. They will always love you. I will always love you.”

“I love you, mama!” The boy said hugging her.

“I love you too. Now go wash up for dinner while I clean off this window before your father gets home.”

The boy washed up and sat down across from his mother to a dinner of thin totato soup. His mother quickly thanked the Maker and they started to eat.

“Why isn’t Father home yet?” he asked between bites of soup.

“I don’t know.” his mother answered, with a worried look on her face.

They were almost finished with their bowls when the door creaked open and the boy’s father entered and slumped into his chair with a sigh.

“Well, you got any dinner for me?” He asked grouchily (though it was more of a command than a question).

The woman quickly rose, took their bowls to the sink and fetched him a bowl.

“The soup’s cold!” he bellowed.

“It wouldn’t be cold if you had come straight home!” The woman snapped back.

As he ate his soup, the man grumbled “A workin’ man deserves his soup warm… What has she done all day? Knit? Mughhh gugghh… cold soup. Darn prices… I hate totatoes…”

She could sense her husband was angry (as usual) and nodded to the boy to go. The boy slipped out but could hear them from the living room.

“How was work?” She asked, trying to draw his attention off of the cold soup.

“You know exactly how it’s been goin’.” The man grumbled.

"Actually, no I don’t!” She screamed at him “Cause you’re never home, Or you’re in such a mood that no one dares to talk to you!”

“I’ll not hear from you again Soe!” He rose from his chair “I don’t work for Barnas anymore. He fired me.”

Soe gasped.

“Now stop yer gawkin’! That was a month ago!” He paused and drank something. “Since then I’ve found some ‘odd’ jobs ‘round Dugtown. And a few outside it…”

“The STRANDERS?!” She exclaimed loudly. “You know how I feel about their type.”

“Like you can talk! Sofee Louelle Grabbins!!” the man yelled. This seemed to silence the still yelling Soe who seemed taken aback.

“And anyway, they’re all I could find. They pay decent… considering the circumstances…”

“CIRCUMSTANCES?!!” Soe yelled. “I don’t know what kind of shady jobs you’re doing for the Stranders but I’ve had enough! Whatever ‘decent’ money you’ve been making certainly hasn’t been going towards feeding your son!”

“I… I lost it… at the dice tables…” The man fumbled.

“The dice tables?!! What have you become?! Wasting your money on chance? Not just your money but OUR money! What are we going to do...” She fell back in her chair distressed by all the fighting.

“Sofee, I’m not the only one who’s a screw-up…” The man started.

“Don’t call me that!” The boy’s mother began to sob brokenly “I’m not Sofee Grabbins anymore and you know that! I’ve changed! And so have you, but not for the better. This is not the man I married. I miss the old Hyrts!”

The boy peeked through the doorway to see his mother with her head in her hands, sobbing.

“I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU TELLING ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE WOMAN!” Hyrts turned and opened the door.

“Where are you going?” She asked through tears.

“I don’t know.” He answered gruffly. “Maybe I’ll be back, maybe I won’t. One thing’s for sure, I’ve got to return to em’ . Who knows what those dirty thieves’ll want next…”

As he reached to close the door, Soe spoke up “Just take a minute to consider who’s the dirty thief.” she said passive-aggressively.

Hyrts looked at her over his shoulder with a single tear in his eye and said “Me. But I’m stuck now. Once a Strander, always a Strander.”

As his father closed the door with a bang, his mother screamed “THAT’S NOT TRUE!!” and fell to the floor in tears.

The boy ran to his bedroom. He lay on his bed and thought about his father as he listened to his mother’s sobs. An anger slowly grew in his heart until it burst forth in a single scream, muffled in the boy’s thin pillow. The scream dissolved into sobs. “I’ll never be like my father!” he thought. Crying was a sound that would ring in his ears for the rest of his life… crying and screams.

P.S. If you're worried about the father leaving, It will be resolved later. 😉