EFFIE BATEMAN | BRISBANE| CONTACT
As he sits quietly on the floor, local child Kyle Francis wonders if his parents have forgotten his presence.
It’s not often that he’s allowed to stay up late, and though he doesn’t have access to a watch right now, the opening credits of CSI Miami suggest it’s now 8:30 pm – which is half an hour past his bedtime.
He’s not entirely sure if the holidays have impacted his bedtime, but he highly doubts his parents have unanimously decided to relax their stringent rules. Or at least, his dad wouldn’t anyway. His mum could be cajoled into letting him stay up an extra hour, as long as dad was out of earshot.
No, he suspects his position on the floor at the rear end of the couch has clearly masked him from the view of his dad’s armchair.
A suspicion that’s confirmed when the man on the TV starts inspecting a corpse, which would have been the perfect opportunity for his dad to shoo him off to bed.
Attempting to breathe quietly through his nose, Kylie ignores an itch on his leg and focusses all of his effort on remaining as still as humanly possible – which he firmly believes is working, until his father signals he knows by asking the question Kyle always hates to hear.
“You know what time it is, Kyle?”
“Time for the blanket show.”
More to come.
