4

Chapter 4

"Where is he?" the man in the driver's seat said, glaring at the other people in the vehicle through the tinted windows of the van. Zumwraek recognized him from his picture in the paper, Mr. Tazman, his adopted father. "I thought that kid was supposed to be smart enough not to go running away on me!"

Mr. Tazman turned in his seat to glare at the blond man beside him. "What'd you do now, Mikey?"

"Nothing! I just wanted to talk to him. I told him all those dumb stories you used to tell us when he was younger and he laughed it off! Like that would actually happen! What kind of stupid story could you possibly make up about me that would even begin to fool an eight year old kid?" Mikey crossed his arms angrily. "And besides, how am I supposed to convince a kid that you're his dad, it'd be impossible to get him to believe that my story's true without telling him. Why don't you try talking to him yourself?"

"Because I don't think that he believes your stupid story," Mr.Tazman stated flatly. "He's obviously smarter than you think he is, and he knows you weren't really trying to trick him, you just had some other stuff to say and he believed you. Don't be such a fucking pussy Michael, it's not that hard of a task you big lug."

Mikey rolled his eyes and looked across the room at Zumwraek before sighing and sitting back in his seat, he knew that arguing with Mr. Tazman wasn't going to help and it was better not to argue with him, especially since he already didn't trust him with his nephew in the first place.

"You know what, fuck you and your shitty stories anyways," Mikey muttered, his voice full of venom. "You should have told me you were adopting a kid, maybe I would have gone along with it or something instead of pretending to think you were his uncle. God forbid, you actually manage to get yourself in trouble and ruin your perfect life. Now you have a six year old kid and I have no idea where he goes. You know, I've lost all hope for you ever having kids of your own but damn...this kid is even more fucked up than you."

"If anyone's fucked up, it's you. You haven't even been able to have a decent conversation with him yet, you idiot, do you have any idea how hard it is dealing with a child who refuses to communicate with you? Even though you're his legal guardian?"

"Oh please, I can handle it! I'm handling it just fine! At least I have the decency of being a human being!" Mikey argued angrily.

Zumwraek listened quietly to their conversation, watching quietly as the two men shouted at each other. In the past few weeks he had learned quite a few things about both Mikey and his adoptive father Mr. Tazman. One of these things was that he was extremely angry with the universe and his life. He blamed everything that had happened to him on whatever reason it might be that led him to end up with such a terrible family, and Zumwraek couldn't blame him. He probably would feel the same way if he had to deal with such crap every day, it would drive anyone insane.

It was obvious that Mikey had no idea that he had spoken to Zumwraek during that argument. They both continued to bicker loudly as the man drove the van down the road, the boy's head was bent downwards, staring angrily at his phone.