Flames

Creating and Evolving, part 1

Seth gingerly set the box down and tried to brush some of the sparkles off his shirt. "Hold on and I'll get some scissors...." Roux was too busy hugging her box to reply, so he patted her head and went to the kitchen. A moment later, Becky entered and set the cookie plate by the sink. "I thought you asked Naomi about the glitter," he sighed, looking down at his shirt. It was the newest one from one of his favourite bands, fresh out of the laundry.

"I did," Becky replied. "I swear I did." She went on tiptoe to kiss him. "I'll deal with Naomi's box, okay? You de-sparkle and look at your prototype."

"Scissors!" Roux called out. "I want to open the box!"

Becky kissed him again before grabbing the scissors and heading for the doorway. "Pray for me."

"Maybe Naomi sent one for you too," Seth teased.

"Well, I do like yellow...." Becky squared her shoulders and headed back out, and Seth followed at a safe distance. Roux was prodding the box and he could already see glitter gathering on the floor. "Go," she whispered, "while you still can."

But Seth's curiosity was piqued, in a weird way. If he was already coated in glitter, a little more wasn't going to make much difference. He watched—albeit from a distance—as Becky cut the tape on the box and sat back so Roux could open the flaps. "Look, Mama!" Roux exclaimed, pulling an envelope out of the box. "I got mail in my mail!"

Maybe it's not from Naomi? Seth thought back to the envelope he had saved from Roux's eagerness to look in the box upstairs. The two boxes so far seemed to be packaged very similarly. "Can I see?" he asked. He didn't get a good look at his envelope before he'd set it aside, but he thought he might at least recognize the writing.

Roux, to his surprise, actually abandoned her box and brought the envelope over to him. "Let's read it!" She was a fairly strong reader on her own, but sometimes her enthusiasm got the better of her and she read too quickly.

"Okay." Seth took the envelope and turned it to face her. Her name was written in huge, looping script, taking up almost the entire front of the envelope. "You already know what that says...." He went over to the box and held the envelope over it. If it was filled with glitter or confetti—or knowing Naomi, both—at least the mess would be somewhat contained. The only thing that came out, though, was a fancy invitation card. Crouching down beside his daughter, Seth held the card open. "You start."

"Big Jim," Roux began. Naomi was the next word, but she often stumbled over the spelling. "Naomi?" When Seth nodded, she pressed on. "And Tank and Marley Fatu!" She did a little happy dance and turned to Becky. "The doggies sent me mail, Mama!"

Becky grinned. "I see that, sweetheart. I bet they miss you almost as much as Auntie does. What does the rest say?"

"Cord—cord-dial-ly?" Roux scrunched up her nose.

"Cordially." Seth kissed the top of her head. "It's like friendly."

"Oh." Roux nodded to herself and tried again. "Cordially invite Miss Roux Lopez—that's me!" She took a moment to bounce again before she continued. "Um... to a craft weekend." She looked up at her parents. "What's that?"

Seth sat down beside his daughter. "Auntie Naomi and Uncle Jimmy are inviting you to have a sleepover at their house and you and Auntie can work on your briefcases." He peeked down at the card. "And Mama and I are invited too."

"Maybe I'll finally get a Money in the Bank case of my very own!" Becky declared. "I can make it orange. Naomi's got dibs on yellow right now, or else I'd pick that. I could paint it like the Irish flag!"

"You don't get to use all the colours, Mama. I get some." Roux left the card with Seth and scampered back over to the box, lifting out a mini-case very similar to the prototype she had upstairs, except it had Caution tape already pre-printed on it. "Mama, there's one for you!" Roux set her mini-case aside to try tugging the larger one out, but the foam inserts held firm.

"Can I help?" Seth asked. "I think it's like my box."

"Okay, Dada. You can do it. But it's Mama's case." Roux shot him a wary glance as she took her mini-Caution case over to her mother. "Look, Mama! Will my name fit on it?"

"I'm sure it will." Then Becky nudged Seth. "So are we going to the sleepover?"

Seth waited until he had Becky's case out of the box and looked it over. He wasn't quite sure why Naomi would go through the trouble of sending the cases when Becky and Roux would just have to bring them along, but he supposed they wouldn't have to pack a lot for a weekend. "We'll call and see what days she has in mind." If nothing else, he could at least take Marley for a morning jog. That would probably have a low risk of sparkles.