“Ella, can you take a pic of this one?” Anton shouted, kneeling down and looking closely at an orange pattern on the rock. 

“Coming!” Ella said. She’d been working on an illustration of a damselfly, a common citril. She left her sketch pad and pencil, and grabbed her camera. 

“That’s a beauty,” Anton’s father said, standing over him. Anton liked it when his father came along. He liked that his father was interested in knowing about the things that Anton liked; he was a good dad like that. “Have you been watching it for a long time?”

Anton looked at the orange lichen on the side of the rock and then at his data book. “I’ve been measuring this one for two years and three months. It’s grown in diameter by 0.2 mm. I estimate the rock’s age at this spot as 347 years.” 

They moved away so that Ella could take a photo. Anton and Ella were best friends and had been since primary school. They liked odd things, so their nerdiness brought them together. Anton loved lichens. This project on lichens and how they can be used to measure the age of rocks, he’d been working on for nearly five years, for no reason except that he was interested in it. The same way Ella drew insects. Ella also played softball and was Mowana High School’s star pitcher, so she had some popularity at school now and that helped both of them. At least most kids stopped teasing them now.

“Listen, guys, I’m starving. Any chance we can take a break?” Anton’s father said.

“Okay. Let me measure the last one, then we can go,” Anton said. “I’m hungry too.”

They entered Ko Gae, the most popular restaurant in Nokeng, and took a booth by the window. 

“Hey, Sam,” Dana, the waitress, said, coming up to the table. Anton watched his father smile. Dana was the friendliest waitress at Ko Gae and they were always happy if she was serving them. It was nice how she’d remembered his father’s name. “What have you and your handsome son been up to this morning?”

“Doing science. You know Ant loves science,” his father said. 

“Sure, I remember you told me that.” She winked at him. Anton looked at Ella but she was looking down at the menu. 

“Let me give you guys a chance to choose. I’ll be right back.” Dana turned and left.

As soon as Dana was gone, Anton’s father said, “Let me go wash my hands. Get me a burger and chips if she comes back.”

He left and Anton said, “That was weird.”

“What?” Ella looked up at him. 

“That! Like Dana winking and saying her and my dad spoke about me.”

Ella shrugged. “Isn’t it your father owns a produce wholesaler and Ko Gae is one of his customers? They probably talk about a lot of things. Your dad is great. Don’t start letting your mind go out of control like you like to do.”

Ella was right. Anton was always getting things wrong because of his over active mind. He once thought his sister, Claire, was running away with her old boyfriend, Jim. He and his dad were in the car about to rush to the bus station when Claire rode up the drive on her bike. She’d been at gymnastics practice and it ran over time. Ella was right. His dad was great. Look how he brought them out to measure the lichens and now took them for breakfast. He supported Anton in everything and even got excited about Anton’s projects. He even got excited about Ella’s projects. His dad was Anton’s hero. Why was he looking for evidence that worked against him? It didn’t make any sense. 

They ate and then dropped Ella at her place. She had a game in the afternoon. 

“See you later then,” Anton called after Ella as she walked up the pavement to their flat.

“Yep.”

At home, Anton’s mother was rushing out of the house when they arrived. “I have a baby coming. Gotta run! Claire’s making lunch. Toodles!” 

His mother kissed Anton on the cheek, waved at his father who was still getting the car into the garage, and dashed off on her scooter. She’d taken to riding a scooter because the traffic could be bad and she was a midwife. She didn’t have time to wait in long queues of cars when a new baby was coming into the world. She did home births and needed to be there, since she was the only trained healthcare worker that would be. 

As soon as Anton entered the house he smelled the scent of burned food and was happy they’d eaten at Ko Gae. He went into the kitchen. 

“Hey, Nerdboy, help me with the rice,” Claire said. 

Anton opened the lid and it became clear where the burned smell came from. The rice was burned and also not cooked. How was someone able to do that?

“Yummy! Something smells good!” Anton’s father said, entering the kitchen. “And I’m hungry.”

Anton looked at his father. Did the man have no sense of smell at all? And besides, they were just from eating. His father shook his head imperceptibly. It was a sign not to talk about it. Like with him, his father supported Claire too, even in her terrible attempts to cook. She thought she was a good cook, and part of the blame for that lay with his father. Anton wondered if it would not be better for everyone if their father told her the truth. 

“So did you get your mould measurements?” Claire asked while Anton added water to the rice. 

“Lichens. And yes.” Anton was staring despondently down at the pot. There was really no way to save this rice. 

“Daddy, after lunch I’m off with Pam. Mom said it’s fine.”

“Ant’s off to Ella’s game and I’ve got some paperwork at the office. We better all take our keys then,” his father said. 

Claire kissed her father on the top of his head. “Thanks, Daddy. Let’s eat.”

She set the bowl of burnt, undercooked rice and another of a grey, liquid-y material that might be a stew on the table. 

“That looks yummy,” their father said. ‘Yummy’ was the last word Anton would have used to describe what sat before them. 

 * * *

Ella’s team won the game, so afterwards the coach took them out for a celebratory dinner. Anton was invited since he was their biggest fan. They headed to Ko Gae, the big hangout on a Saturday night, especially for the kids at Mowana High School. They pushed a bunch of tables together and the coach ordered pitchers of soft drinks and loads of pizzas. 

Anton looked out the window and thought he saw Claire outside. He shouted in Ella’s ear. “I’ll be right back.”

Claire didn’t like Anton troubling her when she was with her popular friends, but he’d remembered at the game that their mother probably didn’t have her keys and wouldn’t be able to get in the house. He’d left his cellphone at home and had been worrying about what he’d do. It was lucky he saw his sister. But when he got out to the parking lot, he found that it wasn’t Claire after all.

He turned back to go in, and, though it was getting dark now, his eye caught something at the back of the restaurant building. He looked closer and was confused at first. It was his father’s car. He was outside the car, standing next to it. That wasn’t really what confused Anton. Though his father had said he’d be at his office, maybe he got hungry. What confused him was that his father was holding Dana Wilson, the popular waitress from Ko Gae – and they were passionately kissing! 

Tell us: What do you think of Anton’s father now?