Photo prompt: © C.E. Ayr
“He’s still there.” Morty whispered, his nose to the window.
“What’s he waiting for?” Bella pushed Morty over to make room, pressed her head to his.
“I dunnow.”
“You’re not even allowed to stop for pick-up on roundabouts,” Bella noted.
Morty sighed. Since she’d found a driver’s-ed pamphlet, his twin had turned an insufferable source of traffic trivia. Never mind it’d be a million years before she could drive.
“Should we go ask?” Bella fidgeted.
Morty shook his head. “Dad said wait here.”
“But it’s been eight hours!”
It had. And almost as long since the old man showed up.
For Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers
Na'ama Yehuda 
Left full of questions with this one – what could he be waiting on? I feel it’s not something good that he’s involved in anyway!
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I think you might be right and something is fishy, in more than one way …
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Hmmm… Is Dad testing them? Because I sure hope it’s not a sign that dad is abandoning them…
Well done!!
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Thanks, Dale. It is a very long test if it is … and from their vantage point I suspect they are both in a car … I hope nothing happened to their dad, and I do wonder about that old man – is he watching them? Does he know something they don’t? SHOULD they go out and ask? Is this a test? If so, what for? And why and why this way? …. oy.
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Oy!
I pictured them watching from a house looking at the roundabout… now I’ve changed my whole idea… 😉
Many questions, no answers… gee, thanks.
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Sorry … my crystal ball’s gone missing and my fairy godmother is taking a nap …. All I have is questions … 😉
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Are Dad and the old man the same person? How long will it take the kids to figure it out? Nicely mysterious piece
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I don’t think they are the same person, but perhaps in disguise!? Hmmm … a whole other dimension to this now … though, really, eight hours of this???! If that’s the dad, he’s got some ISSUES! 😉
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Na’ama Y’karah,
If the author has questions this reader has all the more. I was afraid that Dad is abandoning the twins. I hope that’s not the case. It sounded also like he left them in the car in the middle of the roundabout while he’s standing in line for something. Well written in any event.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Yes, I’m all full of questions. I need some answers, and I’m the author!!! 😉
In my mind, the father did abandon them — either deliberately or due to something that happened to him and prevented him from coming back. Eight hours is a long time in a car, for anyone, let alone two children. As for that old man — he seems to be waiting for something. Perhaps for the dad to return (if he’d seen the man leave the children) or perhaps he’s watching for something else. The coincidence would be too great for him to wait the same amount of time the children are waiting … unless there is something untoward happening and he’s party to it … hmmm …
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So many possibilities, but perhaps the old man is worried about them,
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Perhaps he is! It certainly crossed my mind … 🙂
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As thought-provoking open-ended mystery tales go, this is up there with the best of them! Nice one Na’ama.
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Thanks, Keith … I hope for the best for those kids… Yay for the feedback!
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Oh boy, what’s going on here, then… I hope they’re not both sitting dead in the car with needles in their arms 😦
Nice one!
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Oh, no no no … I hope not!!! I think that if their dad won’t come back soon they WILL go for some help … and as for that man on the other side of the roundabout … I half hope that he’s watching out for them, half hope he knows where their dad is … whole-hope that the kids will be okay …
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Wow! Your story starts off gentle – I mean, twins are always bickering – and then abruptly becomes very sinister. The coincidence of the old man having been there for 8 hours, and dad gone for 8 hours, and they haven’t been approached by a policeman to find out why the car is on the roundabout…how spooky is that?
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Very spooky … Yeah. Some roundabouts may be quite quiet as far as passerby go, and perhaps other driving people don’t really look/notice what takes place in parked cars nearby … and then there is that old man … I hope he’s been looking out for them, but eight hours is a LONG time no matter how you cut it … So, yeah, SPOOKY!
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ooh, very intriguing – I hope someone comes back for them. Not sure it’s going to be Dad though.
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Yes, I’m not sure it’ll be Dad, either …
Thank you for reading and commenting!
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it looks like the kids had waited for eternity with dad coming back as an old man. 🙂
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Who knows what time-warp their dad had stepped into, then, eh? 😉 Fun twist, that!
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A modern Hansel & Gretel?
Sounds like bad parenting.
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Hmm … I hold a small possibility that the dad had every intention to return expeditiously but was detained or incapacitated unexpectedly … Though that would still be sad, the other options are sadder …
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This little snippet of conversation tells us just enough. . . . . .to be NOT enough 🙂 Great way to set up a mystery!
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Thank you, Linda! I hope they’ll be okay and be reunited with a caring caregiver soon! 🙂
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I feel like dad needs to find daycare of some kind… are they waiting outside his workplace?
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That’s a thought! I don’t know, but it would explain the duration … (even if not the old man …) – if it is a daily thing, then absolutely he needs some better solutions for his twins!
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