Sebastian’s Story – Part 11 – Scrabble – The Ramblings of E.M. Kingston

Finn had not spent any amount of time with Sebastian after he was born because of school and pursuing his career as a detective. His mother’s untimely passing drove him to change his major from engineering to criminal justice, and he was away from Roland for quite a long while. When he graduated college and got into the police academy, everyone and everything had changed.

With the thought in the back of his mind, he chose a car that looked like his mother’s station wagon to begin playing with the blonde-haired boy.

“Good jobs, Mr. Finn!” Sebastian spoke excitedly and playfully to his new friend.

“Thank you! Do you like it?” Finn rolled the car around the homemade track that Sebastian’s momma had built him.

“Yeah…I like mine better though.” He flashed a blue truck like his Gammy’s pickup truck.

As they rolled the car and truck around the track, Finn began asking little questions to get Sebastian talking and feeling comfortable. He felt bad interrogating such a little fella, but he needed to hear those secrets.

“You and your mommy…did you play cars together?” Finn hoped he did not make Sebastian sad with his question, but he was a tough little boy.

“Mhm. She likes playing wif me.” He looked across the room to the board games. “But hers liked playing that game more.” Sebastian pointed to the box that said “Scrabble” on the side.

“Oh, I love that game too! Do you wanna play it sometime?”

Sebastian shrugged his shoulders without deciding about the word game and continued rolling his truck around the track. He got quiet and looked a bit sad. Finn figured he would have to build a little bit more trust before asking questions.

“I lost my momma too. She was my best friend. She loved your mommy and Auntie Brooke.” Finn opened up to Sebastian to relate to his pain. “I never thought I would be without my mommy, so I bet it is really hard for you too.”

“Mommy told me she may have to see Auntie one day. My dad is bad.”

“He is, but your mommy tried very hard to protect you from him.” Finn patted Sebastian on his shoulder. “She would be very proud of how strong you are for such a young fella.” Finn smiled into the little boy’s eyes.

“Yeah, she teaches me.” The sweet boy stood up and ran over to the bookshelf with all the games as he finished speaking. “We can play this now.” He grabbed the Scrabble game.

“Sure! Whatever you want to do…I am here for you, okay?”

“I know. Mommy told me you would play with me. She showed me what to spell.”

Finn watched as he spelled out letters inside of the board. Sebastian first spelled “C O L E.” From there, he spelled MEGAN on the E in Cole. He put AND on the A in Megan, and the little boy spelled MURDER on the M of Megan. Last, he spelled BROOKE on the E of murder. Finn’s heart dropped.

“Is that one of Mommy’s secrets?” Finn questioned what he was seeing on the board.

“Yeah, I dunno what it says though.” Sebastian pouted.

“It’s okay, Sebastian. I can understand it.”

“Wait there’s more, Mr. Finn.” He spelled out FINN MARLOW, and he then spelled IN on the N of Finn and TROUBLE from the O in Marlow. Then a new name popped up. From the F in Finn, Sebastian spelled out FLANNERY. “This one is new. She said to show you.”

“Thank you, Sebastian. You are really an amazing little person, you know that?” Finn knew the name, and he knew to be thankful to see it on the game board. Jericho Flannery was a bad person, and he was in contact with Brooke before her death.

Sebastian began picking up all the letters from the board to put them away, and he looked at Finn with a sad face, “Daddy made Mommy go, right Mr. Finn.”

“I’m not sure, but I am going to find out. We are all going to be okay. I promise.”

Just as they finished putting away the game Fiona calls them to dinner.

For my new readers, this is an ongoing story. Here are the previous posts: