Motorcycle Girl: Book Two

Chapter 37: Amanda Baldwin

"We're going to look at a house tomorrow." I say. Mom, who is now wiping the sink with a sponge drops it, turning around.

"A house? To live in?"

"That's what a house is, yes." I laugh.

"You guys are moving here?" Adelaide asks, her eyes shining in excitement.

"Oh my god, Maman, you should see the house we're buying!"

"We are not getting the house unless we go see it." I say. She starts pouting again, and I lean down to kiss her but she turns her cheek like a child. Chuckling, I kiss her cheek instead.

"We are going to look at a house that she has been watching for a month." I say. "And if it's as good as the pictures show we'll get it."

"Annie, you raised a picky child." Odeletta says, accepting the glass of water my Dad is handing her. She thanks him.

"I know I did, sweetie." Mom says. "What did he do this time?"

"He's so annoying about the windows."

"There are no screens." I say. "Which means bugs."

"So let's install screens." Dad says, giving me a weird look.

"The windows don't slide up, they push out." I explain.

"I don't want screens." Odeletta sighs, giving me a look of annoyance. "I like them the way they are."

"You have never seen them." I say.

"I don't want screens." She repeats.

"You won't be saying that when you wake up to pee an there's a spider in the bathroom." I respond.

She glares at me and I just grin at her.

"I hate you." She says.

"You love me." I say. She drops her glare and sighs.

"You're right, I do, you big oaf." She pushes me lightly. I smile and lean down to kiss the top of her head.

"We're getting screens." I say into her hair.

"We're getting screens that are very transparent." She says. "How do you expect to use them? How are we supposed to put in screens like that?"

"What kind of push out is it?" Dad asks.

"I think it's a crank." I say.

"The house in France had those." Josh says. "I installed screens on them."

"How?" I ask.

"I got another door kind of, but the door was a screen and it had hinges. The screens were on the inside so you could open them and clean the window and it kept the bugs out."

"We are not getting screens." Odette says.

"Bug, you're going to want screens." Josh says.

"Tell then another reason you're picky." She says.

"The basement stairs don't have a door, they're just there and there isn't enough space to install a pocket door. Raylen could fall down the stairs. You could fall down the stairs. Opal could fall down the stairs."

"I can walk on stairs Uncle Nathan." She says, looking up from her coloring book.

"I know." I say to her.

"So put a door in." Dad says.

All the doors in that house are real wood.

"I mean, I guess I could." I say.