Dancing with the Devil

Chapter One

Three Months Ago

Chapter One

Mackenzie rode the few blocks home from school, and stopped in front. She glanced at the house to the left. It was white, but had a yellowed shingled roof that always made her think of a slice of bread with mustard smeared on top. On the other side was another big new place, also painted white, with a pale green door. The bread and lettuce house. In the middle was hers. A brown, pseudo colonial, with darker brown trim. Some fancy magazine declared monotones were chic, so of course her father believed it. Mac thought the three houses looked like a giant sandwich gone wrong.

She slipped into the kitchen door, closing it with both hands to ensure she didn’t make any noise. The house was bright, with lots of sunshine spilling from enormous, two-story windows. Each room led to the next through wide archways. Light, airy, open. Nothing like the people who lived in it.

Music was playing, and she peeked from the kitchen through the wide front hallway, and on to the family room. She could hear her father’s deep, muffled talking and the responding little girl giggles. Made her want to bang the pots and pans around, but if she did, he’d know she was home.

Mackenzie went to the pantry, and, entering the huge closet, surveyed the rows of staples and canned veggies, lined up like soldiers awaiting inspection. After restacking the cans of tuna so the edges were flush and the labels all faced the same way, she grabbed a box of pasta and walked out. When the water was boiling, she dropped a handful of the spaghetti into the pot. She drizzled some extra virgin olive oil into a frying pan, chopped up three cloves of garlic, and tossed them in. The oil heated up, snaking the fragrance of frying garlic through the house.

“Kenzie! Kenzie!” a little girl shrieked. She ran into the kitchen holding her blankie in the air like a flag, pigtails bouncing. “When did you get here, Kenzie? Me and Daddy are practicing.” She could not get close enough to her big sister and hopped around Mac as she cooked.

Mackenzie smiled at Lily but warned her, “Watch out Brat, you’re going to get burned if you’re too close to the stove.” She stirred the pasta, then dumped small pieces of broccoli in the colander. “You want to get our meatballs?”

Lily skittered to the fridge and pulled open the heavy freezer door with both hands. She grabbed a Ziploc bag with squiggles scribbled in the white rectangle on the front. “I wrote a label for it so we wouldn’t forget,” she said, handing it to Mackenzie. “I want you to eat mine and I’ll eat yours, okay?”

“But Lilybean, how will we tell them apart?” Mackenzie asked as she opened the plastic bag. She smiled to herself as she placed Lily’s collection of lopsided and misshapen hunks of meat next to her perfect spheres and slid the plate into the microwave. 

“I made mine monster size!” Lily said, standing on tiptoe to watch them defrost. She hopped on each foot in time with the dinger as it chimed the last five seconds.

Mackenzie whistled. “Wow, Lily, you’ve been practicing your hopping, haven’t you?” You’ve gotten even better since this morning. I think you need a meatball kiss!” 

Lily’s eyes lit up as she ran over and angled her cheek up expectantly. 

“No, you have to puff your cheeks out like you have monster size meatballs in them and then we squish our cheeks together. Like this!” Mac bent down and they both followed her directions perfectly, making ppppthhhh sounds as they did.

“Hey, where’s my partner? Lil, you leaving me to dance all by myself?” Mackenzie’s father came into the kitchen and said, “Hi honey.”

“Look, Daddy! Kenzie’s home!