Thread: Thankful Who: Rob and Caleb Where: Rob's family's home When: Thanksgiving NPCs: Rob's family (Lacey, Travis, Coach)
"It's halftime", Rob's mother stated from the kitchen doorway, her tone and eyes telling the men in her family that she expected some help cleaning up from dinner now. She'd known better to ask earlier. Yes, thanksgiving was about family, but football was a close second, especially for this family. There were three football games on back to back to back and they wen't going to miss any of them. The television had even been on during their Thanksgiving meal, though that wasn't anything unusual for Rob's family. Now that it was halftime, she didn't feel bad about asking and the menfolk were quick to comply, filing into the kitchen. Rob and Coach especially were of the attitude of wanting to help quickly so they could get back to the game in time for the second half to start. Rob's mom let Caleb know that as a guest he didn't need to help, but accepted it nonetheless when he insisted he would. Dishes were washed and dried and put away. Rob, as usual, was put in charge of putting dishes back into the highest cabinets.
Rob was putting away some cookware when he realized someone was behind him. He turned and looked down at his mother with a smile that faltered when he saw the tape measure in her hand. "Ma, let's not -", he started to say in a whisper.
"Rob", she said in a no-nonsense tone to get his attention. She gave him a meaningful look as she pointed out, "You're not hitting the ceiling yet, are you?"
"No...", Rob answered, a thoughtful frown coming on his face. "I'm not." He realized what she was getting at. The last time his mother had measured his height was back in July, and at that time he was about an inch from the ceiling. Rob tended to grow about an inch every couple months. He should be hitting the ceiling, having to duck in the kitchen, but he wasn't. "I'll get the ladder", he told her.
A couple minutes later, Rob was standing up against the door frame. There were about four years worth of marks for Rob and his little brother on it, Travis's marks on the lower half, Rob's marks way up high. When he'd come to St. Margaret's as a freshman, or standard year, Rob was already six and a half feet tall, and had grown about six inches a year, as giants tended to do for life. Half-giants sometimes would stop growing at the end of puberty and would still be able to pass for human. Rob had all but lost hope for that to happen.
"Hurry up", he grumbled at his mother atop the ladder, trying to make an accurate mark.
"Stop fidgeting. Keep still."
"I am!"
A few moments later and Rob's mom was climbing back down, poker faced.
"Well?"
"Look for yourself", she told him. He did. Rob looked back down at her, confused.
"I don't see it. You didn't-"
"Yes I did. Look again. It's not even a quarter inch from the last mark."
Rob felt a tightness in his chest. He did look again, and she was right. "That was July. That's..." He started to do the math.
"That was over four months ago", she told him quietly. "Now this doesn't necessarily mean anything", she told him.
"I know." He could still grow, could keep growing. But he might be done. He might be done. Rob couldn't help smiling.
*****
Later that evening, Rob was still smiling when he and Caleb left the house to return to the school. He couldn't help it. It had been a nice day. He's spent it with family and a fairly new friend. There'd been a ton of food, and football to watch. There'd been good conversation through the day as well. Travis, who despite being fully human, seemed to have the superpower of endearing himself to others. The five year old did a good job of entertaining them and trying to keep their attention on him through the day. And of course Rob's discovery abut his height had him feeling genuinely happy and hopeful, perhaps for the first time since the incident with the dark wizard who'd taken him and Caleb and many others. He might be able to live a fairly normal human life, a possibility that had seemed to be growing dimmer and dimmer for him over the past five or so years. Rob loved his giant family, but he had no desire to live his days in a remote cave away from humanity. He wanted to be a part of it, and now maybe he could.
Rob was pretty sure that by the end of the day, Caleb had been glad to be returning to the school. Rob felt a bit amped up, in a good way, and wasn't quite ready to settle down for the night yet. "Wanna hit the bar on the way back?", Rob asked him as they walked down the street.