Suzie’s House 550 : So, We Can Come Back?

Suzie glanced out the front window about half an hour after she and the rest had come back from their picnic in the quary to find her favorite kids all milling around on the sidewalk in front of the house, casting looks of yearning and frustration.

She immediately went to the front door and opened it wide.

“You might as well all come in.”

“Is it… is it safe?”

“For now.” She flapped a hand at them. “We’ll talk about it inside.”

They came at her like cats to an electric can opener. With shy smiles and jostling, they flooded into her hall, then shot through right into the kitchen as if that was the heart of the house and nothing else would do.

Suzie followed them in. Ben already had his hand in the cookie jar. Tracy held a plate out for him to fill. Suzie glanced at the clock to see that it was already supper time.

“Have any of you eaten yet?”

“I’m starving!” Ben kept piling the cookies on the plate. Everyone else nodded agreement.

“Well don’t eat those.” She took the plate. “I’ll fix something. So sit down and be patient. Or… sandwiches?”

“Anything,” Lisa said with feeling, though her eyes were locked on the plate of cookies.

“Fine. You can each have one while you wait.” She put the plate in the middle of the table then stepped back to avoid the mad rush.

Shaking her head in amazement at the vigor of teenagers, she went to the refrigerator.

“So, can we come over like before again?” Bruce talked around a mouthful of crumbs. “Or should we sneak out the back on the way home.”

“It’s safe enough for now. The man we were worried about went back to Russia.”

“Oh.” Ben actually sounded disappointed. “I thought it would be longer than that.”

“We’re only fine for now. This man travels around the world frequently. Eventually this will come up again.”

“Well, we’ll deal with it then,” Tracy said this a deceptive flippancy. She was a lot like Miranda in that. Always pretending to make light of things.

“No you won’t. This is a problem for adults.”

She was sure they would argue, but then Miranda walked into the kitchen from the hall. She’d been upstairs until then.

“Ah!” Tracy pointed at her. “Just who we needed to talk to!”

Suzie barely had time to put together a tray of sandwiches before her kitchen turned into a boardroom for discussing copyrights and advertising.

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