Troll Brother

by P. Edward Auman

  ~~~

  In the principal’s office, Mom had been kind enough over the phone not to drag out the embarrassment any further than it had to be. Besides, she said, she’d already seen the photo of the board online on Mrs. Tremont’s profile. She told Robert, what’s done is done and they’d talk about it when he got home.

  There ensued a fairly lengthy conversation with Kile that evening in the kitchen. Mrs. Johansson reiterated that the rules she laid down about carving troll writing and painting things into her carpets and furniture also applied at school. For his part, Kile seemed to feel particularly remorseful, but not so much for the damage as the fact that Robert had told him it was totally uncool to mess with another guy’s love life. Maybe, Kile thought, romance doesn’t really exist like the human books and TV said it did. But he was sure, even if Robert couldn’t see it yet, that he’d done the human boy a favor.