Finding The Wolf Within

2

BANG...BANG...BANG.

Somebody had started pounding on the door the moment Brian had jumped in the shower, and he had chosen to ignore them. He had to shower before he left and headed to the space station. He was set to leave today on a long mission. One would think that his siblings would be a little more giving and let him have five minutes to shower before he left. Unfortunately, his father had died a few years ago, losing his fight to cancer, leaving his mother alone to finish raising the last of their six boys on her own. Brian was the oldest of them all and felt it was more his place to move back in and help out. Even though all his brothers still lived at home, he didn't want them to feel as though it was their responsibility. Besides, Brian made more than enough to help out, allowing his brothers to focus on school and enjoy their lives. Being single helped as well. There was no one there to tie him down to anything. He had thought that being an astronaut would get him more of the ladies, but not so much. Apparently, with him leaving often, it was a turn-off for prospective girlfriends. It seemed they would rather have someone that was on Earth all the time, or at least all the woman he had found.

BANG...BANG...BANG

As he dried himself off, the pounding on the door continued, and he continued to ignore it. He would be done soon, and then whichever bother wanted the bathroom could have it. He pulled on a pair of black slacks and pulled a polo shirt over his muscular body before running a comb through his brown hair. He took one last look in the mirror. He shook his head slightly. He never could understand why he and his brothers all looked like football players with their broad shoulders and muscular frames. They sure didn't get that from any of the men on his father's side. They had all been balled fat men, no muscles to be found on that side of the family. He guessed it came from his mother's side somewhere, but she never wanted to talk about her family, or at least she would change the subject. Simply saying her father hadn't approved of her choice in men and had cut her out of the family, and then she would change the subject.

BANG...BANG...BANG.

Brian turned, opening the door to see his baby brother standing outside the door with his fist in the air, ready to pound on the door again. Not saying a word, his brother pushed past him and into the bathroom, lifting the toilet seat, and started to pee. "Good morning to you too, damn man." Brian laughed and moved out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

As he walked down the stairs, he could smell bacon and pancakes and knew his mother was cooking. He turned left at the bottom of the stairs, choosing to move through the dining area and into the kitchen. His mother stood at the stove in the kitchen, still wrapped in her favorite pink fuzzy robe their father had gotten for her years ago for Christmas. He had marked the package as though it was from the boys, and she loved it and wore it all the time. She sang to herself as she cooked, singing in a langue he didn't understand, and if asked, she would say she was singing in German. But he knew that none of the words she spoke were German. His mother was a mystery to him. She would say she spoke German, even though he knew she didn't. She would say she was from the Midwest, but her accent would say otherwise. She had been the most supportive when he had chosen to go down the career path he did and possibly more excited for this mission than he had been.

Walking into the kitchen, he moved to the right and pulled a coffee cup from the cabinet, and filled it with coffee before reaching around his mother and taking a piece of bacon off the plate they had been cooling off on. Then, wrapping it with one of the pancakes. As he finished wrapping his bacon, she smacked his hand. Laughing, he took his coffee, bacon, and pancake over to the table and sat down. She smiled at him before going back to her singing and cooking.

He had always thought his mother was beautiful and could have done so much better than his father, who wasn't a bad man at all and had treated his mother like a queen. Brian had just always thought she could have been with more of an athlete-type guy. His father had been the essence of a geek, down to the glasses held together with tape. He definitely didn't look like a man that would end up with a supermodel-looking wife and both of them to be happy. She was tall and thin. She had long black hair that made her light brown eyes stand out. She looked way younger than she was. Nobody believed she was the mother to a thirty-year-old, let alone have six children, and still look like she just walked off the cover of a magazine.

Once his food was down and he had drunk most of the coffee from his cup, he got up, placing his cup in the sink. Kissing his mom on her cheek, he headed out through the front room and out to his car that was parked on the street, so he didn't block his mother's car in the drive. It was a beautiful day out. The sun was up, and no clouds in sight. Today's launch would be a good one. As he drove, he hoped for a smooth trip.