Rain & Fog in the Head

January 2029 - Del Sol Valley, California
Carter/Wiggins - Mona Wiggins is 33, Ethan Carter is 31, Max is 4, Lucy is 1

 

The new year wants to start off with a heavy downpour the morning of January 1.

 

Ethan Carter is feeling a bit zoned out as he gets up to make breakfast for his kids. Maybe really zoned out. Last night’s gig at a local night club for his band Two-Bit Karma has left him groggy and still exhausted.

Max is talking behind him, but Ethan can’t quite focus on what his son is saying. So he lets out a “uh-huh” in between Max’s words.

“So you’ll get it for me?” Max asks, smiling wide.

Ethan shakes away the fog in his brain. “Get what?”

“A new gaming system,” Max says.

Ethan looks at his son. “Don’t you have a gaming system that we just bought you two months ago?”

Max gives him a wide smile and shrugs. “Something happened to it. I think someone broke it. Don’t know who. Maybe it was Lucy. Can I get a new one?”

Ethan sighs. “You better ask your mom about that.”

Knowing Mona, she wouldn’t be willing to buy a new gaming console so soon after the last one. But let her deal with that. Ethan’s head was too foggy to think about it.

“Do you have to do that every morning?” Mona Wiggins asks. She and Ethan have been together over 10 years now, even though that feels like a lifetime. Back in college when she actually messed around with Ethan after getting a little too high from the bubble blower, she never would have thought they’d end up living together with two kids.

“I have to get myself pumped up for the day,” Ethan says. “It helps wake me up.”

“Well, it’s annoying,” Mona tells him.

“You’re just jealous you can’t move like this,” Ethan says, swinging his hips and pumping his arms. “Here, let me teach you.”

Mona rolls her eyes. “No thanks. One person in this place needs to have some respect for herself.”

But even after saying this, she still can’t look away entirely. After all these years, Ethan still has some kind of hold on her that she just can’t explain. Maybe she did too much bubble blowing back in college and messed up her brain. That can only explain why she agreed to move across the country with him.

***

George Tang comes over to practice their newest song later that day. These days it is down to just the two of them. They used to have another member of Two-Bit Karma, but Anita has moved on to another part of her life, living up in Brindleton Bay, Connecticut.

So it’s just the two of them now, and the music doesn’t always come out as they hope.
“Something just wasn’t right there,” George says when they finish a song.

“It’s missing some more sounds in the background,” Ethan tells him. “We need someone on the keyboard.”

“And how do we find someone for that spot?” George asks. “I still don’t know a lot of people around here. The ones I do know are either already in a band or don’t play instruments.”

“Maybe the right person will come along soon,” Ethan says with a shrug. “Come on, let’s get back to playing that song again.”

 ***

 

Max sees no problem running around in and out of the house in just a towel after a bath.

 Lucy found some craft supplies that were on a very low shelf and decided to try them out for herself.

Mona is too late when she finds out what Lucy was doing. “Why is it I can never keep an eye on you?” she asks. “Max was so much easier to keep an eye on when he was your age.”

But it really is too late, just like all the other mischief she’s gotten into now that she can walk, and so Lucy is immediately taken to the bathroom for a long bath to scrub all that paint off of her.

 
Lucy doesn’t spend all her time getting into trouble.

She loves her doll house and plays with her dolls a lot. But Mona has to make sure there are no small parts because Lucy puts everything in her mouth.

And Ethan spends time with her, trying to teach her letters and numbers. Right now, most of what Lucy says is still gibberish, but Ethan is confident that his kids are geniuses. They have a science genius for a mom so they must have inherited something from her.

 

 

Lucy takes after her daddy and dances to the music. Ethan finds her doing this all the time and is filled with pride.

 
Max becomes friends with a little girl named Mercedes.

She comes over to play with him in the backyard of the townhouse where Max’s family lives. Finally, he has someone to play on the swings and monkey bars with!

 

Max likes having someone other than his little sister to talk to and spend afternoons with.

 

Max does like playing with his little sister sometimes.

They really do love each other.

So when he’s not with his new friend he plays with Lucy in her room. He tells her stories about all the adventures the little people and animals are going on.

But still, he gets embarrassed when he’s caught playing in Lucy’s room. Max doesn’t want everyone to think he plays with baby toys all the time!

Mona, however, thinks it’s sweet to see her kids together and see how much they love each other.

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 Beautiful sunrise in Del Sol Valley.

I didn’t add this into the storyline, but Ethan and Mona tried to go to a club but couldn’t get in because they aren’t famous. Viola Menon also showed up wanting to get in.

She got in a fight with the security guy when he didn’t let her in!