Chapter 94

1. The mother pressed her clasped hands to her mouth in uncertainty.
2. Was this The Day That Had Been Foretold, the one her youngest son's teachers had promised during his darkest days:
3. "Those qualities that maketh him impossible now, they shall transform him into a leader of men and women when he hath grown up."
4. Or, as was more likely, was this morn the Final Sign of the Apocalypse?
5. For the eight-year-old had made only minor demands on his mother's patience as he readied himself for school.
6. The child had broken fast with a reasonably nutritious meal, AS REQUESTED;
7. The child had NOT pushed his mother to the brink of murder by raising an unholy noise before the crack of dawn;
8. Verily, the child had been... quiet.
9. Lastly, the child had initiated an amusing conversation with his elder brother and mother, concerning the creepiness of the holiday ditty "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."
10. Were it not for the earliness of the hour, the mother would have poured herself a celebratory drink of unsurpassed alcoholic strength.
11. Instead, she reminded herself that this sterling behavior would probably fade away with the morning mist.
12. Yet when the child asked the mother to retrieve a book forgotten at home, she hastened to deliver the requested tome.