Sorry for the long title 

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After a hard day's work, I started the journey back home. I was a little quicker than usual because I was excited to tell my parents about what happened earlier today.

As I got closer to our family-size tent, I saw the lights on with two silhouettes talking, or really more like arguing, from what movements they were making.

I walked closer and peeked through the little hole in the back where they couldn't see me.

It's probably rude of me to interrupt their conversation, I'll just wait and listen until they're done.

"What am I supposed to tell her?!" Mom screamed at my father with her hands on her hips.

"Uh, the truth?!" Dad resorted back.

"You think that's easy?!" Mom's voice cracked around the last words.

Are they talking about me?

What don't they want to tell me?

What happened?

My mind was becoming jumbled up with all the questions entangling each other.

"Well it's better than lying! She'll find out eventually and how do you think she will handle it?!" Dad looked furious at Mom who was slowly breaking down.

"Sure, want me to walk up to her and say, Sweetie ,your uncle was taken prisoner by the kingdom and you'll probably never see him again?!"

My heart stopped beating.

I put my back against the nearby wall and slowly inched my way down until I was sitting on the cold, hard floor.

I was no longer interested in the conversation.

All I wanted to do was to think about what they said.

Uncle was taken prisoner by the kingdom and I'll never see him again?

They took Uncle away?

When did that happen?

They must have sneakily taken him away when I left.

Darn it! I should have stayed longer!

My eyes started to sting kind of sour-like, like if you squeezed lemon juice into it. I could feel tears trying to come out of my eyes.

No!

Keep it together!

Be strong!

I massaged them and took some deep breaths to feel less emotional. I plastered a smile on my face and practiced my voice to make sure it wasn't too obvious that I had cried.

I walked to the entrance of the tent and took a couple steps back. I didn't want my parents to know that I had been listening to them before. So, I started humming a tune to a song that Dad played for me when I was younger, before going to bed.

They stopped arguing when I started humming, so I assumed they heard me.

When I pushed the tent flaps back, so I could enter, Mom was sipping carrot tea or really just carrot water. Dad was reading the morning newspaper while drinking cabbage coffee, or just cabbage water with a better name, as he called it.

"G'evening" I said politely while grabbing my history book off my small

bookshelf.

"Did anything interesting happen today?" Mom interrogatively asked.

She always asks this question to me when I come back from work, so that was normal.

"Actually, yes, something very interesting happened this morning" I replied with a little smugness in my voice.

"I was on my way to my workstation this morning and I saw a bureaucrat giving, or trying to give, a declaration from the king, about finding anyone who might be a spy for the other side." I tried to say it all innocently to show I didn't really care.

"I may or may not have slapped him, then Uncle Gus may or may not have tried to decapitate him-"

Mom and Dad both coughed on their drink and went on a bit of a coughing fit.

When they finished with them they stormed over to my side and loomed over me.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" their exclamatory kinda made me jump. I had never seen such anger on their faces before, especially Dad, since he is a chilled or laid back kind of person.

Mom started to walk around in a frantic manner while mumbling something about dying or getting thrown in prison.

This isn't going to end well . . .

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Word Count: 682