by Nick Kossovan

“This sure doesn’t feel like our usual Sunday morning breakfast,” quipped Athena as Glen slid a couple of blueberry pancakes onto her plate.
“You came in after 2:00 AM,” said Veronica as she pushed the bottle of maple syrup across the table towards Athena. “What did you expect? Why were you so late?”

Glen walked to the table with a stack of pancakes and mug of coffee. He sat down across from Athena.

“Your mother asked you a question.”

“I met up with a few friends. We ended up going to see the latest Avengers movie at Scarborough Town Centre.”

“Infinity War. How was it?” asked Glen as he reached over for the maple syrup.

Athena looked up surprised her father was current on what was playing in the theatres.

“It was good… really good.”

“What time did you finally come in?”

“Almost 2:30 AM,” answered Veronica. “I was about the start watching another M*A*S*H rerun when she finally came through the front door.”

“In my defense I texted several times I was on my way,” said Athena.

“Doesn’t mean your mother and I weren’t worry. Any reason for being so late?”

Athena took a couple of bites of her pancakes while contemplating how to best answer her father. After a few sips of her orange juice she answered.

“I was invited to a gathering at…”

“You mean you were invited to a party,” interjected Glen.

“Okay, a party, at someone’s house, Claire’s, around Meadowvale and Kingston Road. One of my friends knew Claire. It was nothing serious… just hanging out.”

“Must have been some party for you to come home so late,” said Veronica as she got up to get another cup of coffee.

“Actually it was lame. Like I said we were just hanging out.”

“I take it the guys weren’t up to your standards,” said Glen with a grin. Being upset with his daughter was not in his DNA.

“The few guys that were there were hovered around a PlayStation playing Vampyr.”

“Yet you decided to stay until past 2:00 AM,” said Veronica as she returned to the table with her coffee.

“Well, something happen. One of the guys suddenly fell to the floor and started convulsing, like he was choking.”

“What! Were Claire’s parents home.”

“No they’re in Vancouver, but her older brother was upstairs.”

Veronica became upset. She expected better judgement from Athena.

“So basically you’re in a stranger’s house, no parents are around and someone is having a medical emergency. Do I have the correct picture?” asked Veronica.

“Yeah, that about sums it up. I admit I wasn’t thinking when I agreed to go with my friends to Claire’s house. We yelled out for her brother and he came running down the stairs. One of the guys said he knew what was happening. Turns out the guy wasn’t choking; he was having an epileptic seizure. His friend said he always carried his medication. Claire’s brother searched the guy’s pockets but didn’t find any medications and yelled for someone to call 911. My friends and I just stood there watching all this. I feel so bad not having helped.”

“Doesn’t sound like there was anything you could have done.” said Glen reassuringly.

“I guess not, it just felt weird standing there doing nothing.”

“I take it the paramedics came,” said Veronica impatiently.

“They arrived and his friend told them he was having an epileptic seizure. They administered something to him before taking him away. We were somewhat all freaked out at what just happened… none of us had ever witnessed an epileptic seizure. Then Claire’s brother offered to give a few of us a ride home, which I accepted.”

“Do you happened to know the name of the boy who had the epileptic seizure?” asked Glen

“Claire said his name was Adrian.”

“Did you catch a last name?”

“Nazarian”

“Adrian’s not a common name,” said Glen to Veronica as he got up from the kitchen table and walked over to the kitchen sink where he placed his plate of half-eaten pancakes and empty coffee mug. He then walked over to the living room’s bay window and saw that Wanda’s car was in her driveway.

“Looks as if Steve and Wanda are back from the hospital,” said Glen as he walked back into the kitchen.

“Actually only Wanda came home,” said Athena. “As I was getting out of Claire brother’s car she was pulling into her driveway. Steve was not with her.”

“Thanks for the intel,” said Glen as he returned to his seat at the kitchen table.
“Even though you kept texting your mother, your escapades last night had her, and I worried… very worried. I don’t like you going to a stranger’s house and accepting rides from someone you barely know.”

“I understand,” said Athena in a low voice. “I’ll be much more careful from now on.”

“I’m sure you will. Your mother and I want you to be safe,” said Glen who then turned to Veronica. “We’ll talk about consequences for Athena later. Right now I want to go next door and see how Wanda and Steve are doing.”

“You do that. Athena and I are going to have a long talk. Some rules need to be established.” said Veronica.

As Glen got up from the kitchen table Glen gave his daughter a knowing look. He was about to tell her she was blessed to have parents who cared for her, maybe even tell her about the girl squatting in the farmhouse north of Goodwood, when someone rang the door bell.

“I’ll get it,” said Glen.

It was Wanda. It was obvious she had gotten little sleep.

“Come in,” invited Glen, “we were just finishing breakfast.”

“I just wanted to stop by to tell you that Steve and I took your advice and went to the hospital after you left last night.”

“Hi, Wanda,” shouted Veronica from the kitchen. “Are you and Steve okay? Please come on in. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“I sure could use a cup.”

“Then come have a seat here in the kitchen,” said Veronica. “Athena, you and I can later.”

Glen walked Wanda into the kitchen and went over to the counter to get her a cup of coffee.

“Athena told me you came back home alone last night”, said Glen as he placed the mug of coffee in front of Wanda.

Wanda looked at Athena and smiled.

“You were out quite late. When I was your age I had a 11:00 PM Saturday night curfew.”

“We’ll be speaking to her about her late hours,” said Veronica. “How’s Steve?”

“Turns out it looks as if Steve and I did catch something. As we waited in emergency for a doctor to see us I began feeling somewhat better, however Steve was feeling quite ill. They took some blood from him and said it would be a good idea if he stayed overnight for observation. Since I was feeling better it was okay for me to go home. The test results should be available sometime today.”

“So it doesn’t appear too serious,” said Glen.

“Doesn’t appear to be. I’m fine now. Once the test results are in we’ll know what happened.”

“You said you and Steve were fine when you went to bed Friday evening, right?”

“Yes, we had dinner, the chicken breasts, which I admit I shouldn’t have left on our kitchen counter to thaw, then we watched a bit of television, had a bottle of wine between us and went to bed around 11:30 PM.”

“So your typical Friday night,” said Athena with a smirk.

“I don’t think you need to be part of this conversation,” said Veronica. “We’ll talk later.”

Athena got up with he dirty plate and empty glass and walked over to the kitchen sink where she placed them on top of her father’s dirty dishes.

“It’s not like I’m out late all the time.”

“Later,” said Glen.

When Athena started up the stairs towards her room Glen said to Wanda, “Steve said the delivery of the fruit basket woke you up.”

“It was like a little after eight!” answered Wanda. “I wasn’t too pleased, neither was Steve. The delivery guy apologized for the early hour, said he had a lot of deliveries to make that day and we were the first.”

“You said you called Teresa and left her a voice message. Has she called you back?”

“So far, no.”

“I have a question… Teresa and Josh, what’s their last name?”

“Nazarian,” answered Wanda, “Why?”

“Coincidently Athena was at a party last night where a boy name Adrian Nazarian had an epileptic seizure.”

“Yes, that would be their son, he’s epileptic.”

“Small world,” mused Veronica.

“They live on Sherwood Avenue; Pharmacy and Lawrence area, which is fairly close to around here,” said Wanda.

“True. The card that came with the gift basket,” said Glen, “would you mind if I borrowed it for a day or so? I’d like to follow up with the place that sent you the fruit basket.”

“Follow up?”

“That’s Glen for you… always working a hunch,” said Veronica.