Page 53 of Peach Tree Family

"It doesn't support multiple players, actually. The other team members are NPCs. You help them out and they become part of your team until the next quest. The game is full of bugs. And you can't save, only pause," Theo said to Seth.

Ace didn't play for long before the game froze on him. "It did it again, Theo. And I almost got the treasure."

"You picked up the glowing spear, didn't you?" Theo asked. He shut down then restarted the laptop.

"I thought maybe it would work this time," Ace said.

"While it restarts, go put down some dinner for Butter," Theo told him.

Once he went, Seth pointed at the laptop. "That game looked good."

"We can play longer than that usually. We learned what choices to avoid to keep the game going. And restarting is painfully long, but the game won't run on anything newer than this." Theo sighed. "It almost makes me want to tackle those bugs."

"You mean fix them? You can fix the bugs but you don't?" Seth said, confused.

"Some of them, but Ace has grown up with those bugs. He might miss them."

"And you would too," Seth guessed.

It was true. "The bugs are my dad's. It would be like erasing his spirit from the game. I can't do it," Theo said. "Now I'll distract Ace with this."

Theo got out the enlarged photo he had framed and showed it to Seth. "Ace doesn't know about this. Someone tagged a concrete wall with the name Ace. Ace was just learning how to write his name when he spotted it. He got so excited so I took a picture of it and had it printed up and framed."

"You're a good brother," Seth told him.

"It's a small thing. I failed Ace when it comes to the big stuff," Theo said. What Ace had to go through was never far from his mind.

"No way," Seth said, not believing him.

When Theo showed Ace the framed graffiti, he wasn't sure if he would remember it, but he did. "How did you get it, Theo?"

"It came in the box. We'll hang it up in the bedroom," Theo told him.

"That means I'm cool!" Ace said pointing at his name.

Seth agreed. "You sure are." He then nodded toward the kitchen door. "But it looks like Butter wants to go outside."

Ace went out with her then poked his head back inside yelling. "I see a car."

Theo's first thought was that it was Hannah, but going out he saw it wasn't her car.

They all went out and watched as a gray car parked and a petite, young woman with short, dark hair stepped out. She waved and Ace waved back then she went to open the trunk.

"That's my teacher, Ms Kurtz," Ace said.

"Is she here to check up on you?" Seth asked and Theo frowned.

"Oh no. I didn't finish my homework," Ace said and Seth reminded him he had the whole weekend.

Despite being worried about why she was here, Theo tried not to show it as she approached carrying over a small space heater. She set it down and offered Theo her hand. "I'm Noreen Kurtz, Ace's teacher. And you must be the big brother."

"I'm Theo Atkins. Nice to meet you," he told her then he introduced Seth.

"I brought you this thing," she said pointing at the space heater. "This is a noisy space heater my grandparents hate. Ace mentioned you didn't have heat."

"We have the fireplace working now," Theo told her.

"It might be good to have heat in the bedroom too," Seth said.

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