“My goodness!” Mum gasped as she gazed up at our house. Rays of the sun high above made her graying frizzled hair sparkle like a steel wool sponge.

We were on the sidewalk, right next to waist-high hedges bordering the elegantly landscaped lawn surrounding our house. Again, Jimmy stayed in the car. Nelly, Sawyer, and I exchanged pleased winks. Mum didn’t seem to be faking it. And it was obvious whenever she’d fake liking something.

“It’s just like your father and I imagined it all those years ago,” Mum excitedly said. “With the second floor and the attic with circular windows peeking at us like eyes—”

“Told you the house looks like a face,” Sawyer muttered.

“—and the tiled roofing and the bay window to one side and the…” Mum turned around and peered at us. “How much did you spend on this?”

“On buying back the house and lot, Mum?” Nelly asked. “Or the renovations?”

“For all of it.”

“I couldn’t remember exactly…” Nelly said though she knew how much it cost, glancing at me to answer. We siblings discussed this and went over the contracts.

“The value of the land has risen considerably, Mum,” I said. “No surprises there. It’s been years and just look at the whole street. But we paid less than the going market rate of the properties here.”

“Why was it discounted?” asked Mum.

“The previous owner wanted out of the property,” I said. “They couldn’t afford the rising home insurance and taxes and maintenance—you know, the works.” I didn’t mention that the previous owner lost his job and had money problems. It might trigger some bad memories with Mum. “They were willing to sell it at a generous discount if we paid the full price in cash. Don’t worry, Mum. It wasn’t that expensive.”

“The previous owner…” Mum mumbled, her eyes downcast.

Nelly glared at me as if to say, you shouldn’t have mentioned them. But what was I supposed to say? To distract Mum, Nelly said, “As for renovating the house, there were considerable expenses, and it shows. But we were able to wiggle that in the negotiations, chopping the land price further down.”

“This place was in a really bad shape when we first saw it,” Sawyer said, oblivious to Mum’s increasingly glum expression. “I mean, I only saw pictures of it. Herald and Nelly were the ones who actually came here and hired a contractor and stuff to fix it up. If you saw what it—” Sawyer stopped when she noticed my glare.

I subtly shook my head. We should focus on the now, that we got our house back and it looked like it could be on a home design magazine. No need to remind Mum about losing the house and especially that other people messed up what she and Pops built.

“So, what do you think about it, Mum?” Nelly jumped in to avoid an awkward pause, gesturing at the house.

“You said it’s just like your dream house, yeah?” Sawyer said.

“Yes, dear. Our dream house…” Mum wiped a tear from her eye. “It also feels like a dream we’re here again.” She walked past the opened low gate and stopped to behold more of the lawn. “A fountain?” She raised a brow at the curtain of water cascading over artfully arranged stone stuck to the wall, falling into an artificial pond. “That isn’t part of the dream.”

“I bet,” Sawyer sniffled. “Pops would thumbs-down something like that.”

“It’s my dream, Mum,” said Nelly. “I figured we should also include things we like. Remember how I always asked for a fish pond? The fountain makes it more aesthetic, and I find the sound of running water soothing.”

“Does it have any fish now?” Mum asked.

“Not yet,” I replied. Was Mum thinking about who’d take care of the fish? If my guess was right, then she must be considering staying here. But I didn’t want to know her answer yet, so I said, “I also added something I wanted.” I pressed a button on my WeeCee and the garage door swung open with a subtle hiss.

Mum chuckled. “I remember, I remember. You’d always make beeping noises when your father pushed up the garage door.”

“That’s like a standard feature of houses now,” Sawyer said. “What Herald wanted was a swimming pool. Remember that he was envious of his high school classmate who had a pool?”

Mum placed a hand on her chest. “Don’t tell me you built one? Where is it? Behind the house?”

“No, Mum,” I said. “We nearly built one—I mean, I nearly did, but Nelly shot it down.”

“Now that’d be a useless expense,” Nelly said. “It’s not like we’ll be throwing pool parties here.”

“It’d be a waste, dear,” said Mum, nodding. “Most of the time, it’ll be empty.”

Nelly raised a brow my way. Like me, she was trying to discern the meaning behind Mum’s words. Was Mum saying the pool would be empty because no one would stay at the house? Or did she mean she wouldn’t use the pool while living here, so it wouldn’t be filled?

“Let’s have a tour,” I told Mum, again not wanting to hear an answer.

I wasn’t running away. Yet. Just now wasn’t the time to spring the all-too-important question. I was hoping Nelly would ask it.

“I love the stone on the driveway,” Mum said.

“Nelly picked that,” I said. “She also chose most of the furniture. Okay, all of them. If you have any complaints, direct them to her.”

I opened the door and gestured for Mum to enter. She stepped through and looked around with eyes wide, mouth gaping, and arms out as if she were blind and was feeling her surroundings. Sawyer jumped in next, whistling in amazement.

“Wow, this place looks awesome,” said Sawyer. “Good job, Nelly. One look and I know this is your taste.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nelly asked.

“Hey, I complimented it,” said Sawyer. “You like it, Mum?” Sawyer was also fishing for hints. Mum only replied that she did like it. Nothing more to go on.

The house was fully furnished—it had chairs, tables, and appliances. But it was still a bit bare. It lacked things to spruce up the place and make it feel more lived, like knick-knacks and pictures, personal items. Some more furniture, paintings, and lights could also help fill the empty spaces. It was up to Mum to decorate the rest of the house. Nelly and I had planned on placing family pictures here and there, but we didn’t have the time. And we couldn’t find old pictures that included Pops—Mum had most of those, and we couldn’t ferret them away without her noticing.

Despite the short notice and being busy with her work, Nelly did a nice job decorating the place. I suggested getting an interior designer to do the, well, interior design, but Nelly insisted on doing it herself.

I could barely recognize it as our old house but some angles jumped out to me. I had visited the inside of the house only once before renovation began. During construction, I refrained from entering it as much as possible, only asking for pictures from Nelly or the contractor. Avoiding bad memories… I kept projecting it to Mum though it was me intent on doing it.

There were oohs and aahs as we roamed the first floor. Mum was excited; it wasn’t in her nature to fake it, a trait that was good in some cases and bad in others. When our family faced many problems, Mum couldn’t bottle it up and passed on the stress to us.

When we reached the second floor, Mum hugged each of us, overjoyed that her dream house was completed. I should also be enthralled that Goal #101 of my List was likewise done, but all I could think of was what if Mum wouldn’t live here? Nothing really to it, I supposed. This could just be our vacation home, and we’d return here for family gatherings once in a while. But that sounded like… a defeat.

I’m not sure why.

We climbed up the attic, with Mum going first. Nelly and Sawyer shot me glances, clearly telling me to ask Mum if she’d stay before they also climbed up the stairs. I gave them a tentative nod.

I was already forming reasons for Mum to live here. And I was also ready to volunteer to live with her. I had plenty of excuses to parry possible accusations from Sawyer that I wanted to stay in Egret only to meet Eclairs. I was going to wait until Boady returns here, I could go looking for our other friends, or I could watch over our new branches to free up Nelly. Heck, I could say I was starting a fitness program over at Mr. Armand’s gym.

But I said none of that. Until we returned to the front door of our house, I didn’t ask Mum if she was going to stay. I chickened out, perhaps for the first time in my life.

Nelly and Sawyer were shooting lasers my way. They also looked like they wanted to open up the topic, but like me, they didn’t. Like brother, like sisters. The saying probably didn’t go that way.

“Let’s tour the neighborhood,” I said to Mum after we returned to the lawn. “Maybe we can also visit Vanguard Gaming to see if Eclairs is there.”

---

 

I didn’t realize how desperate I was to avoid asking Mum the question until I offered to meet Eclairs. Fortunately, Eclairs wasn’t there at Vanguard Gaming. One of her employees told us that Eclairs was at the Egret Convention Center, preparing their stall for MotherCon—I almost forgot that the event would start tomorrow. I should also check up on our preparations.

Maybe I should leave now. Like, right now, and just forget about our house… If only I could log out of real life.

Wait, that didn’t sound right.

“Too bad Eclairs isn’t here,” Sawyer said. “Herald’s excited to meet her.” If it was any other situation, I would’ve dismissed it as good old sibling ribbing. But Sawyer had a serious expression as she glared at me. “We could’ve asked Eclairs what living in this neighborhood is like,” she added through gritted teeth.

Nelly elbowed Sawyer. “We’ve had a long morning, how about lunch?”

“We can find a place to eat near here,” I said. “There’s a restaurant I want to try across Sterling Park.”

“I think we should return to the hotel, dear,” Mum said.

“Why? Do you want to eat there?” I asked.

“No. We can eat at that restaurant you want later. But it’s about to be noon soon—checkout time for hotels, isn’t it? We should get our things so we wouldn’t be charged for another day. I know it’s quite an expensive place.”

“Get your things?”

“To live in our house,” Mum said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Sawyer and I can stay there instead of the hotel.”