Thomas didn’t usually lie to his dads. He didn’t need to, they were all very kind and understanding, and always explained why something was forbidden.
But tonight was an exception, and it was for a very good reason.
It was the night before Remus’s birthday, and Thomas wanted to get him something special. Something he could use for his art, or just keep as a decoration. Something both gross and fascinating, just the way he liked.
Thankfully, he knew where to find such a thing. A couple days before, he had found a huge dead centipede with a shiny black exoskeleton while playing by the lake with his friends. The head was a little squished, but it looked otherwise fresh. So Thomas had hid it inside a tissue and then behind a stump, in the little patch of forest behind the house. He just had to go get it while everyone was asleep and put it in a jar for his dad to find the next morning. He wanted it to be a complete surprise.
But it took so long for the adults to be in bed…
After a while of waiting under the covers, listening to his dads coming and going in the corridor, Thomas decided he couldn’t wait any longer and quietly sneaked out of his room. It had grown quiet in the house, and Thomas assumed there wasn’t much risk anymore.
He walked downstairs to the living room, on his tippy toes, trying to be as quiet as possible. There wasn’t anybody in the living room so he decided to go for the back door, but before he could cross half the room he heard footsteps in the kitchen. He immediately leaped under the table.
Janus came out of the kitchen, holding a mug of tea. He went to sit on the couch, took a sip and let out a deep sigh of contentment. Thomas felt worried and impatient, he didn’t know how long his father would stay there. He didn’t need to wonder for very long though. He wasn’t hidden as well as he thought.
Janus glanced at the table, frowned for a second and said. “Thomas, why are you not in bed?”
Thomas didn’t say anything, hoping that maybe if he pretended not to be there, his father would think he was mistaken. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Janus stood and pulled a chair in order to get his son out from under the table.
“Thomas, I asked you a question,” Janus said, kneeling so he could look at Thomas in the eyes.
Thomas pinched his lips and looked down at the floor. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s not the right answer, honey,” Janus just replied, gently tilting Thomas’s head up to meet his eyes again. “Tell me why you are up so late and sneaking around the house.”
It took some encouragement, but Thomas explained quietly what he had been trying to do. Janus didn’t interrupt him, didn’t scold him. When he was done, the man smiled.
“I understand that you wanted it to be a complete surprise, but you should never do things like this unsupervised. You need to tell us when you want to go somewhere, because if something goes wrong we would be very worried not to find you, okay?”
“Okay,” Thomas said, sadly. It wasn’t the first time he was told to be more careful. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Janus said, standing up. “Now, how about we go get that bug for daddy?”
Thomas smiled brightly, then frowned. “You promise you won’t tell anything before tomorrow, right?”
“I swear,” Janus promised. He picked up a flashlight from one of the drawers and took Thomas’s hand. “You’ll see, two are better than one to find something at night, especially if one of them has light. Plus, I can get the alcohol.”
“Why do we need alcohol?” Thomas asked.
“To put the bug in. You’ll see, Remus will love it.”
Thomas nodded and, with the help of Janus, left the house to go get Remus’s birthday present.
It wasn’t very far away, only about thirty feet into the forest, and Janus was right, it was much easier to find it with the flashlight. As soon as he saw the stump, Thomas ran to it, tripping over himself to get to the bug, still wrapped in a dirty tissue. Then they went back home, and Janus helped Thomas find the perfect jam jar to put the centipede in and filled it with alcohol.
“Where should we put it?”
“In my room,” Thomas asked. “That way I can give it to him as soon as I wake up.”
Janus smirked. “Sounds perfect.”
So Janus took Thomas back to his bedroom, sat the centipede jar on the desk and helped Thomas back in bed.
