James' Emergency

Lily-Anne Thompson, Aiden's grandmother, was a big fan of tangerines. When her favorite grandson came home with a bag full of fragrant fruits, she immediately ditched the begonias she was planting in the garden to eat the tangerines.

Aiden watched his grandmother eat with gusto.

It did not at all seem that his grandmother was suffering from a serious illness such as leukemia. Three days had passed since the biopsy sample was taken. Aiden's grandmother was determined to forget that she even had a biopsy.

In front of his grandmother, Aiden never mentioned his concerns. He kept them in his heart while praying every night that his grandmother forever remained at the peak of her health, no matter how nonsensical his wish was.

As usual every evening before dinner, Aiden went outside of the house to check whether the MUPs were still working properly.

This routine started ever since Aiden moved into his grandmother's house. For some reason, little Aiden had what his grandmother described as an overactive imagination.

He had been having an eerie paranoia that the MUPs would be broken for some reason and then his house would be raided by rabid vampires. Little Aiden demanded to check the functionality of the devices himself.

Grandmother Thomson ended up buying an instrument that was specifically designed to check MUPs to appease her frantic grandson.

Ever since then, Aiden checked the MUP devices one by one before nightfall. There were two MUPs outside of his house, and then there were two more MUPs inside the house. Little Aiden had to climb on a chair to reach the devices back then, but the young man that Aiden grew up to be no longer needed the assistance of a chair. Unfortunately, the insecurity never went away.

After Aiden was done with his daily MUP-checking-routine, his phone rang from inside the living room.

"Aiden! Your phone!!!"

"Oh. Coming, grandma!!!"

Aiden read the name on the display. It was James.

"Hey, James. What's up?"

James' voice sounded hurried.

"Hey, man. Aiden, can I ask for a favor? I know this is very sudden. Can I drop my brothers and sisters at your place for a night? I will pick them up on Sunday. No. Tomorrow. Tomorrow evening for sure."

Aiden glanced at the setting sun outside of the window.

"Uh, sure, buddy. But it is pretty late. You should really not go out right now. What is happening?"

"Aiden, I can't explain right now. Look, we are on our way, okay?"

James lived only two blocks away from Aiden. He arrived with his siblings not ten minutes later. All of them were panting from running for two blocks. James pushed the two boys and two girls through the door while greeting Aiden and his grandmother at the same time.

"Hey Aiden, Grandma Thompson, I am so so sorry for this interruption. I have no one else to turn to."

"Owww Big Bro, stop shoving," Princessa, the youngest, complained.

"Big Brother, where are you going? Why are we here? Hi, Big Brother Aiden," Harvey, the second oldest added quickly after launching a series of questions at his brother.

"Hey, Harv."

Aiden rubbed Harvey's head.

Grandma Thompson got out of the kitchen with a big plate of steaming fried chicken. She blinked at the bunch of children who just appeared in her house magically.

"Hello, James. No problem at all. Children, are you hungry? We have fried chicken tonight!"

The younger children instantly broke into a cheer and ran toward the dining table. James gently shoved Harvey toward the dining table.

"Go, Harv. I need to talk to Aiden."

Harvey reluctantly left.

James waited until the boy was out of earshot before he turned to speak to Aiden.

"Aiden, really sorry about this. I will explain it properly on Sunday. No, tomorrow. I promise."

Aiden shook his head to calm down his friend.

"Look, James. Saturday or Sunday, it does not matter. But what are you up to? This is already very late at night."

The words "rabid vampire" were not said, but both of them knew what kind of danger lurked at night.

James leaned in and whispered, "They are picking me up. I will be fine."