Page 61 of All That Has Flown Beyond
“Right.” Kaiyo held Edu in one arm as he took a stopwatch from his pocket with his free hand. “And…start!”
With a collection of sighs, the pack moved towards the blanket. Kaiyo proceeded to watch the chaos that unfolded.
They all started sorting through the material without any seeming rhyme or purpose, barely talking to each other. Ahmik worked in landscaping, Emil in construction, and Thea in interior design, so they were familiar with putting things together and had the perceptual reasoning to visualize spaces and shapes. Despite this, the project quickly deteriorated.
“This goes with the cabinet,” Ahmik started, only to be cut off immediately by Thea.
“No, those are for the desk.”
“No—”
“Yes. You do landscaping, I know furniture. This is for a desk.”
“This—”
“Guys,” Emil said tiredly.
It went on like that.
Ahmik would try to take charge at every turn, butting heads with Thea. Emil was so preoccupied with trying to keep the peace that he was too distracted to be much help at all. Amaya didn’t even attempt to intercede, watching as if it were a familiar show. Isla sat down with her back to the squabbling adults and immediately seemed to disappear from their sight.
“All right. Twenty minutes is up,” Kaiyo called. They hadn’t even fitted two pieces together.
“Already?” Thea exclaimed, looking at their lack of progress.
“Yep. Now, can anybody tell me what went wrong?”
“That Ahmik over here needs everythingjust soall the time, that he doesn’t let anybody else speak, that—”
“Oh, that’s rich,” Ahmik interrupted Thea. “Youtellingmethat I don’t let anybody else speak!”
“That’s because I have somethingusefulto say.”
“Oh, yeah, because—”
“All right. Stop,” Kaiyo said. “Isla. What went wrong do you think?”
Isla, who had remained slumped on the ground, straightened up in surprise. She glanced at the adults.
“They were too busy fighting to listen. Like always,” she said. Thea opened her mouth a little in surprise.
“I’m with Isla. No one was listening. There was no leadership,” Emil said, nodding.
“I wastrying—” Ahmik started, but Emil shook his head.
“I’m not saying it was your fault. And no, honey, I’m not saying it was just your fault either, but the arguing doesn’t help, does it?”
There was a moment of silence.
“Okay,” Kaiyo said. “Leadership. That’s a good place to start.”
“Gah!” Edu said in agreement. Kaiyo smiled at him.
“So, how about we choose a leader? Seeing as Ahmik is Kephale we can start with him.” Kaiyo suggested. Ahmik nodded. Thea pursed her lips. “Ahmik, you’re now in charge. You can put anybody in time out for five minutes, but you can only do it once to each person, so…use it wisely.”
At that, Thea rolled her eyes. Everybody ignored her.
“All right. Another twenty minutes. And…start.”
