14

"I love my new washer." Claudia was singing and chanting as her new efficient washer and dryer did her laundry faster. "I love my new dryer." She was giddy and happy. She finally had something in the house that did not previously belong to someone else. The dryer hummed like a happy giant cat as it dried her sheets on the first try. She spun around and gave her husband a big hug and kiss.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Sean was happy for her too as he tried to get his dad on the kitchen phone. "Hey, dad… sorry to bother you at Uncle Earl's, but did you or he buy Claudia and I a new washer and dryer?"

"Sean, what kind of money do you think I have?" His father spoke from Florida. "We didn't do any such thing!"

"I know. I know." Sean noticed his daughter coming through the back door. "But someone bought us a new washer and dryer and I'm trying to figure out who it was. I'm calling everyone we know with that sort of money."

"What about your brother?"

"Dad, the only person Eddie cares about is himself!"

"Hey, I take offense." Eddie looked up at that bit of slander. "I could be generous."

"Eddie…" Claudia recovered her pot of stew to keep the steam in after Lily checked it out. "A new refrigerator? A new hot water heater?" She hoped he was their mysterious new benefactor.

"Claudia…." Eddie reared his look at her with disbelief. "If I had $1400, do you think I'd still be driving that piece of crap parked at the curb?" He rose from the table and wandered past his brother talking to their father at the curb. Lily had dropped her purse at the range top to relax a moment, sip a bottle of water and watch the scene unfolding before her. "You know…" He continued. "You could have a bug in your house. The CIA does it all the time. They plant a hidden microphone, do you a few favors to get your attention and then enlist you to do a few jobs for them."

"Eddie, that's one of the stupidest thing I have ever heard!!" Sean ended his talk with his father and hung up the phone. He was running out of people to call about the new washer and dryer. "The CIA does not have a bug in our house!"

"I so want a new car!" Claudia spoke out loud to the room. Lily smirked at the results of her hidden generosity, and her father looked at her mother.

"What?" Claudia looked at the three of them and tried to excuse her silly effort. She was just so thrilled over her new washer and dryer. If she could get anything else the same way, she'd go for it. "Lily," She picked up her daughter's pocketbook. "Put this away, set the table for me and tell your brothers to wash up for dinner." A cell phone somehow jumped from the open purse and Sean grabbed it out of the air. It was a very nice pink phone. It was an expensive one. Father turned to daughter.

"Lily, where'd you get a cell phone?" He confronted her with it. "You know we can't afford it. Where'd you get it?"

"I got a job." Lily stood defiantly prepared and mentally rehearsed for her parents. "I answered an ad in the paper and for five hundred dollars a week, I collect and gather paperwork, deliver paychecks across town, fill out forms and open up the warehouse on Moseby for deliveries for a lady living in Boston who purchased the place." She put a nice slant on her secret activities. Her parents looked upon her trying to decide what to think.

"You're working for the lady that bought that place?" Eddie rose from the breakfast upon hearing the news that his niece was working for the new owner of the place he had tried to vandalize. He rolled his eyes and bobbed his head trying to accept the news. "Well, you can tell your employer that that place is haunted!" He paused for a look. "I happened to know about two guys who broke into that place and got the cahones scared out of them, and one of them is still missing!"

"Eddie…" Claudia scoffed at that story. "That never happened!"

"It happened!"

"Look…" Lily turned round maturely and counted off from her fingers. "It doesn't interfere with my school work, I can get most of it done within my free time and a lot of my stops are on the way home from school. Best of all, it is really easy work plus I'm saving a lot of money for college." She had exaggerated a bit. She did not mention her investments, securities, stocks, properties or the mystical powers that enabled her to predict the stock market.

"All that for five hundred dollars a week?" Claudia thought something about that job sounded too good to be true. "That's almost $2000 a month!"

"You're going to blow it all on clothes and shoes…" Sean knew his daughter.

"And cappuccinos…" Lily reminded them. "Don't forget my cappuccinos…" She collected her cell phone and pocketbook and turned to set the dinner table for her mother.

"Lily, wait…" Claudia stopped her. "You…" She chuckled disbelievingly a bit. "You didn't by any chance buy me a brand-new washer and dryer, did you?" Sean had turned around for the response.

"Mom…" Lily giggled at the mere idea. "Do you really think I'd waste my money buying something like that?" She scoffed and headed out to the foyer to get ready for dinner. She headed through the dining room; she had already set the table with a mere mental thought and no one had noticed. Her mother hadn't noticed. She turned back to the kitchen.

"Well, it was worth a shot…" She palmed her head on trying to solve that mystery.