The Old Man and His Son

"Left a bit… right a bit…"

"Is this good?" Russell asked, then seeing the old man still in contemplation, he stepped back to check out how well he'd placed the painting. It looked straight?

The old man suddenly shook his head. "Take it down, put the old painting up. I prefer it."

Three black lines appeared on Russell's face. He wiped them off along with the sweat upon his brow before doing as instructed, then checking the results. He thought that actually the old man was right, the old painting was better.

"What shall I do with this one?'

"Keep it, I've no use for it."

"Then why did you buy it?"

"I didn't."

[Gained a piece of artwork. Kingdom Culture increased by 1]

Russell shrugged and placed the canvas in the hallway. He didn't really have a use for it either and he couldn't exactly pin it on a palm tree. He thought about asking the System about storage later.

Since coming to the old man's home, Russell had earned a modest amount of points helping him out with various things from changing a light bulb to minor redecoration. He was beginning to understand why the maintenance team employed here procrastinated coming over to his place though.

"Don't put the begonias next to the lavender!"

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want them there!"

It was the age-old situation; the customer was always right. Russell was so glad that he'd never worked in customer service. It was too tiring.

[Task; plant summer bedding plants complete]

[Reward; Gardening +1, 10 points]

Russell yawned widely as he washed the dirt off of his hands in the cottage's small bathroom. As he left the room, he heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the living room.

"Dad, this is Penny," the male voice was a little on the guttural side, not raspy, but as if there was something stuck in the man's throat. Russell couldn't help but peer in and decided the man's colourful tie must be tied too tight.

He was not a tall man, he had even less hair than the man he called father and it was clear he dyed what remained. Russell had nothing against a man hiding his grey hair, but there were less obvious ways to do it. Unblended, jet black on a pasty white head was not it.

"Dad, we're getting married. I wanted to ask for your blessing," the man stuck his chest out proudly, like a penguin.

The girl leaned against him, until her body literally curved around the man's generous waist and along the length of his arm until her chin could lie naturally on top of his head and giggled. She was pretty, her body curvaceous, made more so by the closely fitting dress, which then flared to show off her long, slender legs. She was also around 20 years this man's junior.

"Wedding number five, huh. Well congratulations. Hope this one lasts longer than the last. I'm not paying for the wedding though." This would be wife number five for this guy? Russell huffed inwardly. This man was really not anymore attractive than himself, why was it that he was still a virgin!?

"Dad!"

"Mr…. erm…" Crap, never asked his name! (Author; Never gave him a name!) "I can see you're busy, so…"

"Eh? But I need you to stay and clear out the guttering!" The old man insisted.

"Dad, who is this?" The middle-aged man turned to look over his shoulder, his beady eyes glancing over Russell.

"Ventriloquist," the old man replied. "He's helping me out with some things. Unlike those lazy maintenance people."

"Ooo, really?" The girl asked in a high pitch tone that hurt Russell's ears. Russell was suddenly glad that he was not the middle-aged man who was blessed or cursed (depending on one's point of view) with women. "Can you perform a little? I really wanna see!"

Being as the seagull wasn't around and he couldn't throw his voice, he declined the request; "I'm not prepared, sorry."

The middle-aged man threw a twenty pound note at him rudely. "My fiancée asked for a performance, so perform!"

"Damien, you're being obnoxious. If Russell doesn't want to show off his act, he doesn't have to. Get out."

"Dad! How could you kick out your own son?!" The middle-aged man's face was like a traffic light, changing between green and red. Much like his tie.

"Easily. Want an instruction manual for future reference?"

Like this, the middle-aged man was 'encouraged' to leave.

[Lost a piece of artwork. Kingdom Culture decreased by 1]

This appeared as Russell was folding the twenty pound note and was placing it in his pocket. Oh, he took the painting." Russell shrugged. He really had had nowhere to put it anyway.