Lucas walked home feeling weird about what had happened at the mysterious shop. It was like having his fortune told, but in a way that subtly disturbed him for reasons he couldn't articulate. "You're purpose from this day forward is to protect," the man had told him cryptically. It was a powerful statement that made him feel a bit more important during this seemingly wasted summer, but it was also vague and confusing. Who was he to protect? How would he protect them? He thought about it as he paced the sidewalks, but eventually he reminded himself that it was just some new age woo and he should forget about it.
Finally Lucas arrived at his house, walked up the steps, opened the door, and walked in. Everything seemed normal, and he was about to greet his dad, when his dad grabbed the collar of his shirt, said "Oh no, you don't!" and led him outside.
"What's going on, Dad?" Lucas said but was seemingly ignored.
"Breanna, Luke's tryin' to get in the house again!" the father called upstairs to the boy's mother, also with no response.
Lucas was rather sternly led out to the back yard, where he was surprised to find a large doghouse adorned with a previously unfamiliar variation on his name: "Big Luke" was scrawled across the top in menacing red letters. Sitting in front of it was an empty dog dish. Seeing this, Lucas's father sighed and said, "No wonder your restless, nobody's even fed you this evening." The old man brought out a big sack of dog food and poured a sizeable helping into the dish. "There ya go, boy, eat up."
Lucas just stood there staring in shock. He didn't know what to think. His dad joked around sometimes, but never with this kind of seriousness. Was he supposed to play along and actually eat this stuff?
"You're kidding, right? Is this supposed to be funny? I'm not a kid anymore just because I can't get a job."
"Go ahead, boy. Dinner-time."
"You know I'm not actually going to try to eat that."
"I bet you're expecting people food tonight. Alright, I'll get you out some of our left-over steak. Just a little bit, though."
Lucas's father went back into the house and shouted upstairs again. "I told you to quit spoilin' 'im, Breanna! He's supposed to be intimidating!"
So it happened that after about 20 minutes later, Lucas found himself locked outside with a pile of dog food and several pieces of day-old steak. He didn't know what to do other than just sit there confused trying to figure out what was going on. He did actually take a few bites of the steak, so as not to get too hungry. Finally, he just gave up and sat down to rest. Before he knew it, he was asleep and remained so all night.