Nights at the Lab

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. I guess you could say it was weird that I still had the same mobile hanging above my bed at sixteen that was in my nursery, but it is the one thing I know that my mother picked out for me. So, as I wake up at midnight like I do every day, I see the purple clouds floating around the pink sky painted on the center of the mobile hanging from my ceiling.

I slip my feet into my slippers as they hit the floor and grab the extra blanket from the end of the bed. No matter what season it is outside, it is always cold in our house. Dad says that it has to be for the experiments, but I am pretty sure he just likes it this way. Dad’s a scientist which is fine as long as you make sure to pay special attention to the labels in the fridge before grabbing a snack.

I guess you could say he is more of a scientific inventor. He creates things that the city lab can use, and they buy them from him. My dad has not created a working invention in my entire life but when I turned four, everything he made started working. I sneak past his room as he sleeps down the hall to the door of the lab. Dad cannot know that I am the reason his inventions start working, I need him to believe in himself as much as he believes in me. He is all I have left.

So, every night I wake up at midnight and go into the lab while Dad is asleep and well, I guess you could say I fix the things that would otherwise be broken. Well, not me exactly, but come with me and I will show you what I mean. As I enter my Dad’s Lab, I walk around pulling all the blinds and curtains closed. My friends have this very odd thing about any sort of light coming into the room, but they help my dad if I am here, so I am willing to concede on a few things.

After all of the curtains and blinds have been closed, I walk to the center of the room to take the black candle out from the drawer and light it to let them know I have arrived. I close my eyes and feel the energy from the room. I can feel the air wisp around me and then a calming feeling as everything settles down once more. I open my eyes to see Ben wandering around the room to see what projects have been left unfinished for the day, trying to beat Thomas to the best ones. Hedy is laughing at the boy's club as she sits and reads the notes from the day. C.J. walks directly over to me, she is usually the one who keeps everyone on schedule to get everything completed and makes sure that everything is left in a way that Dad will never know they were here.

“Hello C.J. How was your day?” I ask as she is looking everyone in the room up and down.

“Child, your father may be a genius at starting things, but I would love to come here just one time to find something finished. The world never handed me anything.”

“I know, he just has all of these ideas, and I know that if we can keep him hopeful, one day he will start to finish things on his own again.”

I watched as C.J walked over to Thomas, Ben and Hedy and they started sorting through everything for the day to decide what they would be able to make work. I always feel quite useless at this point in the night. It is not like I could bring them snacks or anything, I mean what do spirits even eat? Do they still need to eat?

I should be used to this by now, them coming into the Lab at night, pretending in the morning to be so proud of Dad for finally making it work. You see, they never actually fully finish an invention, they will get it to the last step and then add notes for him to finish. The smile on his face when he does is worth absolutely every late night. I suppose maybe if my life was more normal, he may have smiled less.