Fun and Games

Daniel Smith's house, 2:00 P.M

A shiny emerald vehicle arrives at the large homestead on the hill. Harrison Jankins came out from the front door and went to the car with a white umbrella in his hand.

"Where is Felix?" Tiffany Monix, lone daughter of Leopold Smith, inquired in a posh British accent. She wore a fine cashmere white jacket and underneath was an off-white ball gown, her hair was long and silver and despite the horrid weather it sparkled as if reflecting the sun. Her eyes were brown but covered by fashionable sunglasses.

"Yes Harrison." Rafael Manix, who was dressed in a casual white tank top with a jumper over top and long black pants, spoke with a deep voice and a clear British accent. It was if they were both from different worlds. Rafael had emerald eyes and short black hair and he wore faux silver-rimmed glasses. "I do recall he was the one that takes the cars when we visit."

"He has been injured." Harrison spoke with a slight French accent, and he took his toque of his head and held it to his heart. "Bruce slammed the door into his face and his nose is broken, I will be taking on some of his duties until his brother comes to replace him."

"Poor fellow." Tiffany spoke. "I suppose Johnson Bread will have to do as the butler tonight, even though he serves far fewer fancy folks."

"By the way, if I may ask Rafael, why do you not wear anything fancy tonight?" Harrison noted.

"It is only her uncle's birthday." Rafael said gesturing to his wife. "It is not as if he is the king of Australia."

Harrison nodded and assisted them through the door. Rafael threw his car keys to Harrison. "Be careful with my car." Harrison spoke.

"I will be very careful, sir." Harrison replied.

Tiffany spotted Elizabeth immediately upon entering the foyer. "Elizabeth! It is so nice to see you!" Tiffany exclaimed. Elizabeth made her way over to Tiffany and gave her a big hug. "I have not seen you in seven years, you look taller and thinner than I remember. I should get myself into a coma, I mean look at this!" She grabbed at her stomach, she was not fat, but she still showed Elizabeth how 'fat' she was.

"Oh, nonsense. You are perfect the way you are Tiffany." Elizabeth replied with a laugh.

"I heard Danny is a detective now, does that make you proud?" Tiffany asked.

Daniel entered the foyer too. "I would prefer that you call me Dan." Dan spoke.

"Oh, Daniel, you are so short that I did not see you there." Tiffany replied.

"I am 163cm, you are only 10cm taller than I am." Daniel established.

"I am teasing. Danny, you need to get your head out of those puzzles and get a sense of humour. I heard about your friend Damien Thrifter. He is such a childish person. He needs to be a man like you."

"I take it that he sent you copies of those files that I wrote."

"The ones edited by the Cascoss commissioner, yes. But I would not dare read anything to do with something as dreadful as murder so the only case I read was 'A Faux Diamond Heist,' the only one where nobody was murdered. I liked that there were two criminals doing two variations of the same basic crime of thievery."

"Yes. One was a kleptomaniac and the other stole the faux diamond in question. But you knew that much."

"Hello Dan." Rafael added. "I have not figured you out, but today is going to be the day that I finally beat you at 'connect four!'" He laughed.

"I will go get it; it is in my bedroom." Daniel went up the stairs and he knocked on the guest room. Harry got up and opened the door. "If it is not the crimson-haired wonder. I see you still have the hat I gave you for your tenth birthday. I am surprised that it still manages to be sturdy after 40 years." Harry was hunched, he had a cane, and he was balder than bald. He had no hair on his face, not even a pair of eyebrows. He looked like a mafia boss, but he always meant well. "I am not ready to see everyone yet."

"Hello, dad. I just wanted to check on you." Daniel spoke.

"Why did you not just ask your darling wife to check on me with her super vision?" Harry asked in his deep old voice.

"She is an Owlmeirey, one with many eyes, she does not see-through walls like people with super sight. She can look at your room as if there was a surveillance camera in your room and she was looking at the screen associated with it."

"I wonder how you are going to keep everything so straight now that you have to deal with abilities."

"There is a list in my office. But usually when a crime is committed with powers associated with them System corporation deals with them."

"But not always."

"That is true. There have been a few cases for which people with abilities are involved but System officers were nowhere in sight."

"What is System anyway?"

"It is an origination under the umbrella of FORMAL that scans people for abilities and deals with crimes committed by people using abilities, they have scanners that are always watching for abilities."

Harry nodded. "Do not get me until dinner is ready, and get Jasmine to fix that confounded stair lift, that thing almost killed me!"

"I did not know that you had an accident."

"Well, I did. Get it fixed!"

"I guess you heard what happened to Felix."

"That is right. Why did you even invite Bruce? You know he is so much more trouble than Victor, and Victor is troublesome."

Daniel nodded. "I will not invite him next year."

"Good. I do not like him in the slightest. He may be good with stocks, but he is horrible with humans and aliens with human appearances."

"One more question and then I will let you rest."

"Always filled with questions. No wonder you are such a good detective. Go ahead."

"What makes you think that Jasmine would be able to fix the broken stair lift?"

Harry picked some sheets up from a shelf nearby. They were copies of the resumes belonging to the people Daniel employed. "When did you read these last? Jasmine majored in home economics and minored in technology. So obviously, she can repair the stair lift."

"Oh. That must have slipped my mind."

"All of those mysteries you have been solving have been messing up your memory."

Daniel nodded. "I will pass the message along to Jasmine. Keep your door unlocked. Okay?"

Harry waved dismissively and closed the door and went back to bed. Daniel checked the closed door. It was not locked.

Daniel went to his room and retrieved his connect four board. The storm outside was still going strong. Things were getting bad. Daniel took the game back downstairs and set it up to face off against Rafael.

As expected, Daniel claimed victory yet again. Alex had one more set of rounds against everyone in chess. He beat everyone up to when he faced off against Bruce.

Bruce's sharklike smile made Alex incredibly nervous, and he blundered his pieces and the game ended in a draw. The first draw Alex ever had. They played again, and it was a close game. Another draw. One more round and this time Alex's nervousness piqued, and Bruce beat him. Checkmate.

Daniel sat beside Alex and stared at Bruce. "Two draws, one win. One more time." Dan stated.

With Dan-Dan by his side Alex absolutely destroyed Bruce this time. He did not hold back. He finally managed to beat the Shark man at his own game.

Bruce laughed. "I got too hungry. What should we play next?"

"The only game where you would have a fair advantage is 'guess who,' we certainly cannot play monopoly, you would win before we get halfway across the board." Dan replied.

"'Guess who?' Really! I am going to go for a smoke in the garage, do you have any cigarettes?" Bruce spoke with a slight anger.

"I have magical strawberry flavoured cigarettes in my room."

Bruce gave him a look of extreme disgust. "Seriously? A cigarette is not a cigarette unless it is real. Those faux cigarettes that give you the feeling of smoking a cigarette are not good enough for me!"

"You really want to smoke a real cigarette?" Dan added. "You already have a pacemaker; you want to give yourself more problems."

Bruce gave him an angry look, a stare worse than the special stare that David Lancer is so well known for.

Liam gave him a cigarette. "My friend smoke all the time so I always have a few packs spare. I can afford them even though they are the 'good stuff,' I would not know if that were true or not since neither Eric nor I smoke." He explained.

"Good." Bruce smiled his scary smile and took the cigarette. "I wonder how this will feel since it must be more expensive than the ones I usually get." He laughed and began to leave. "Sayonara, folks." He exited through the door connecting the house to the garage.

Daniel looked around the room and saw Charlie was no longer in his fun-loving outfit. He was wearing one of the suits that came from Daniel's room. But it was tight on him. "Charlie? What are you wearing? That is my suit."

"My father was right." He said in a serious tone. "I have to fix myself up."

"If you tear it, you pay for it." Daniel spoke.

"Fine."

"Lunch is ready!" Felix announced, he was wearing a band-aid on his nose.

"Thank you, Felix. Has your brother arrived yet?"

"He will be here soon. I will get my car keys and warm my car up." Felix spoke.

The huge family made their way to the dining room, things outside were really getting wild. As wild as the weather in Perth could get. Thunder and lightning. It was loud, it was could, it was scary.

Soon Johnson Bread arrived and waited by the garage. The door opened and Felix drove out in his dark blue Holden and Johnson went into the garage. The passing of the baton was now complete.

Everyone sat at the table and waited for Bruce. Bruce came back in a few minutes later and started scarfing down his food before anyone else began. Johnson, who looked like his brother but with longer hair, a set of dice earrings and a faux casino cap on his head, poured a glass of wine for all the adult guests and gave the grandkids each a glass of apple juice.

Everyone started eating. They ate in a general manner while Bruce ate like a pig, he was scoffing his food as if he were a homeless person who had not had a meal in a week. Even Thomas and Alex, who were the youngest at the table, ate in a fancier way than Bruce. They did not play with the food, they did not chuck a tantrum or dismiss anything they did not like, and they did not eat as if they were animals.

"Honestly, father?" Charlie noted. "You expect me to behave in such a fancy manner as Tiffany Manix, yet you yourself act like a foul beast."

"You can cut whatever act you are trying to pull. You cannot keep your true self buried under a businessperson façade. Also, that is Dan's suit, the one Alissa gifted him. Do not ruin it." Bruce replied.

"I had no idea you cared so much about me." Daniel noted.

"Oh, I'm not caring about that." He looked at Elizabeth. "I am worried about Serene and Gregory."

"Why worry about Serene? She, like I, is just an aunt of Alissa. Gregory Everstone is her father." Elizabeth explained.

"Thanks for the unnecessary reminder. I was aware of that, but they are both so much scarier than you because they took after Edgar." Bruce spoke.

"But they do not do anything criminal anymore." Daniel relayed.

"I know that too. But that does not eliminate their intimidation factor by one bit. I am done with my plate, and I am going to the garage for another smoke. We will speak later Charlie."

"Meet me out back at 4:30. I will put on some rain gear. You still have some in the basement, right Dan?" Charlie said.

Daniel nodded. "Just finish your food before you go get it."

Charlie nodded. The whole family ate away calmly and slowly at their food. At the end, the only plate that was messier than the others were Bruce's plate. It looked hideous, it may have to go through the wash three times to be restored to its formal glory, that is how messy it was. Alex and Thomas had liked their plates clean while Tiffany's plate shined and sparkled since she used her personal moist towelettes to clean it. The plate was so clean that a shimmering diamond would be jealous of just how much it shined.

The storm sounded like it was calming down a bit, but this rainy, dreary day was far from over and by the end of it, a tragedy will happen. The family went back to the fireplace as Johnson cleaned the table and Harrison prepared dinner. They started playing charades. They had no idea that the storm had something horrible in store for them.