Elizabeth was woken by a gentle shaking, "sweetheart…come on, it's a little late" her mother's voice softly guided her into opening her eyes. Blinking and frowning, Elizabeth gave a long yawn and sat up. Her braided hair was knotty and disheveled from sleep.
Lucy had deftly opened the curtains and bright sunlight flooded the room.
"It's only nine thirty, don't worry" Lucy advised, smiling at her daughter's look of confused panic, "but your Grandpa made breakfast…"
She placed a wet cup of coffee on the floor by Elizabeth's bed, "I spilled. I don't think I'll be visiting you up here sweetie, those stairs are pretty steep. Are you sure you're OK up here? Sam's room is big enough for two"
"Mom. No, no. No, no, no I'm fine" Elizabeth quickly assured, wiping the sleep from her face. She loved her brother, she loved both her brothers so much but there was not even a small part of her that wanted to share a room with either one of them. She couldn't express how awkward that would be, "but thanks. And thanks for the coffee.." she said gracefully but with a hint of confusion.
Elizabeth never drank coffee in the morning, it made her poop.
"I know you don't drink coffee at breakfast but...your Grandpa…" Lucy smiled, "anyway. This is a pajama breakfast house, so come on down, OK?"
Elizabeth noticed her mother was wearing a white cotton nightdress and a water-colored dressing gown. In their old house, they had to be washed, dressed and ready for the day before coming down for breakfast. Elizabeth grinned, happy. She was starving. With a chirpy, OK, she threw back her covers and stepped out of bed.
Stopping to look at each other and frowning lightly, Lucy and Elizabeth strained to hear the sudden scuffling coming from the floor below.
"Ohh they're fighting for the toilet" Elizabeth said, realizing what was going on.
"My boys" Lucy replied, in a deadpan.
Navigating the attic stairs one at a time, they emerged onto the landing to see Nanook waiting patiently outside the bathroom.
It looked like Sam had won.
They carried on down towards the kitchen.
Grandpa had made waffles and they were piled high on the kitchen table. Michael was already at the table, cutting into a deep pile of waffles covered in syrup. Lucy sat opposite him and Elizabeth beside. He quickly served them an equally deep pile of waffles and passed them the syrup.
"Good morning to you, too" Elizabeth said slowly, wondering why he was in such a generous mood.
"Beautiful morning!" Michael agreed, piling bacon high onto their waffles. Neither Lucy nor Elizabeth had seen the plate of bacon and smiled at the addition. Michael slapped some bacon onto his dish, too, "and great food, thanks grandpa"
"I can scrub up a good meal when the mood strikes me" Grandpa stated, pulling out the chair at the head of the table, beside Michael.
"Dad, you're always a great cook!" Lucy added, smiling as she took a bite of waffle and bacon.
"I'm gonna help Grandpa tile the garage roof today," Michael said, nodding at his grandfather, "There're some loose ones that need repairing"
"Oh Michael, thank you. That's wonderful, right dad?"
"Ay-uh" Grandpa agreed, dunking waffle into coffee
"Well, since those two are bonding" she said with a grateful smile thrown at Michael, "would you like to come to the store with me?" Lucy offered looking at Elizabeth with an excited smile, "girl's trip?"
"Yeah, that would be nice" Elizabeth was pouring more syrup onto the waffles, "It's been a while, huh? What about Sam?"
"What about me?" Sam asked, entering the room and taking the seat opposite Elizabeth and beside Lucy. He looked down at his empty plate and put some waffles on it.
Michael grinned.
"Looks great, grandpa. Thanks!"
"Mike and grandpa are tiling the roof, me and mom are going to the store" Elizabeth filled him in.
"I really wanted to walk nanook. He was running in his sleep last night, kept kicking me, waking me up. Can I skip the store?" Sam asked, not touching on the roof tiles, while emptying the dregs of the syrup onto his pancakes. He was looking at everyone's semi-eaten dishes and frowning, looking around the table, "Where's the bacon, please?"
Michael grinned devilishly. Grandpa wasn't paying attention, he was miles away, fishing some broken waffle out of his chipped coffee mug.
"Mike" Sam started, realization slowly dawning on him, "Mike, where's the bacon?"
Elizabeth and Lucy looked guiltily down at their plates, understanding dawning on them, too.
"Guess you must have missed it, bathroom hog."
After Lucy and Elizabeth shared some of their bacon with him, and with a little weak chiding directed at the eldest Emmerson child, breakfast continued as usual.
The conversation flowed easily, all four of the new additions feeling comfortable and happy in their new home. The kitchen was cluttered, in a welcome, lived-in sense. In the build-up to the move, the kids had talked about their new house being just a house, but by the end of their relaxed breakfast, it was clearly becoming a home. As Elizabeth and Mike moved the empty dishes to the sink, Lucy insisted she would wash them up. Mike, Elizabeth and Sam didn't fight her too hard.
"Elizabeth, could you be ready to leave in an hour? I have to go to the bank and finish up some paperwork later, too"
"I'll be up on the roof from now, Mike," Grandpa advised, scratching his arm through his thin, red dressing gown, "and finish that bacon, would you? I hate waste."
Sam stopped at the door and jerked his head up. Sure enough, hidden away on the back burner of the stove was a pile of crispy bacon.
The sun was shining brightly but it wasn't too hot. When the left the house, the two women had agreed it was beautiful and comfortable weather and rolled the windows all the way down the second they got in the car. They had driven away, the shape of Michael already toiling away on the roof becoming smaller and smaller. Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh when she realized that her older brother was alone up there, Grandpa nowhere to be seen.
The drive to the supermarket was easy, Lucy had discovered the route the night before and was confidently remembering the town layout, ingrained in her brain since childhood. She had pointed out where she went to school, though the building had burned down and long since been replaced.
The supermarket was unremarkable, neither big nor small. It was painfully air-conditioned though and both Lucy and Elizabeth had slipped their light cotton sweaters on.
"It's not fair for Dad to provide everything," Lucy muttered to herself while pricing up some different cuts of meat. Passing the freezer section on their way to the tills upfront, Lucy had suggested they grab some ice-cream for the drive back. There was a huge selection of ice-creams and lollies, ice-cream sandwiches and frozen juices. They each got a soft serve cone, one triple chocolate and one choco-mint. Lucy had divulged that she was a huge sucker for chocolate, her eyes sparkling with delight as she placed the two treats in their cart.
There were no bag packers in the store and the surly cashier, scanning at high speed, made it clear he wouldn't be helping them there. Elizabeth made quick work of packing and stacking though, one of her first jobs had been as a bag packer for an upscale supermarket in her old town.
"It's nice to hang out, Mom," she said with a smile, placing the last of the bags in the trunk of the car. It had been a long time since the two of them had been alone. In the past, they used to dedicate at least one full day every month to spend together.
Lucy kissed the side of her daughter's head as she closed the trunk, "I know sweetie. I've missed it too. Gosh, I love your brothers to death but sometimes I really need a little girl time!" she confessed in a half whisper.
They had driven by the bank but it was closed, which took some of the spark from their afternoon. "There's just so much I have to do, so much paperwork and things…" she had said, mostly to herself, before taking a deep breath, exhaling softly and suggesting they start on their ice-cream. "Ice-cream is a problem solver!" she had joked, enjoying the rich triple chocolate.
They were just finishing their cones when they pulled up the drive.
Michael wasn't on the roof anymore and Nanook was sleeping in the sun, his fur wet, his water bowl almost empty, panting happily.
A mud-splashed Sam emerged from the house. He made a beeline to the car, opening the trunk without prompting.
A well trained son, indeed.
"Sam, what happened to you?" Lucy asked, taking in her son. His hair was styled as usual and he was wearing a similar outfit to the one he had on yesterday…just splattered with mud, water and paw prints.
"Nanook found a mud patch," Sam replied, "Grandpa said it hasn't rained for ages, so how was there even a mud patch? Mike said I had to wash him. You know how excited he gets around water..."
Nanook loved getting wet. He was the splashiest dog any of them had ever seen.
Sam was carrying three bags, Elizabeth two. Lucy shut the door and followed them up to the house, "It'll come out Sam, it's OK. Mud's easy" she had said comfortingly, "And Nanook looks pretty tired out, so that's nice. Hey, come on. No sad faces. What do you want for lunch?"
"Grandpa made sandwiches, Mom. They're on the table"
They put the bags down, and saw that there was a pile of sandwiches on the table. They were stacked high on a narrow tray, no other dishes in sight.
"Grandpa said he didn't want to dirty any dishes.." a sweaty Michael had announced, cupping a large glass of water. His white shirt had been soaked through at the back, underarms and chest. His face glistened with sweat, too, and black smudges were streaked across his forehead and cheeks.
"Holy fu-"Elizabeth started, staring at her brother.
A grin started to replace her open mouth.
Michael was leaning against the sink, he must have only just finished his roof work.
"That patch of roof wasn't so much damaged as falling apart. Grandpa went in after about ten minutes to get a start on lunch" he said, ruefully.
He downed his water and reached for one of the egg-mayo creations, finishing it in three big bites, "I'm starving".
Between them, they finished the sandwiches with ease and Elizabeth felt the slightest bit guilty for the ice-cream she had eaten just minutes before. Her brothers really looked like they'd been through the ringer this afternoon. Well, Sam looked more fed up than anything else, but Michael. Yikes…
Lucy must have thought the same because she insisted they go take a shower and relax for the rest of the afternoon. Sam had asked, in such an innocent way if he could take a bath instead and both Lucy and Elizabeth's heart melted. Michael was even moved enough to use the family bathroom instead of his and Sam's shared one.
They agreed to go to the boardwalk a little later on and Lucy had said she'd call them an hour before she wanted to leave.
When they met again in the living room in the very early evening, the boys had looked infinitely more energetic and rested. Michael was wearing clean clothes, sweat free and handsome once more. Sam was wearing his long cardigan and was happily mud-free.
They were in higher spirits too, Elizabeth had to dodge an attempted tickle from Michael when she had suggested they looked better and more rugged before.
They drove down to the boardwalk together, singing songs and laughing. Both the Emmerson brothers were back to their usual form.
Lucy parked in front of the library, she didn't want to battle the crowds any closer to the boardwalk.
"How about an hour and a half? Two hours?" she asked, locking the door, "Sound good?" they had all agreed that it sounded fine, "great. Let's just meet here, OK?"
They separated, Lucy walking in the direction of the neon lit restaurants looking out to the boardwalk and Michael, Sam and Elizabeth heading towards the boardwalk itself.
Music was blasting again but it was different from yesterday in that there was a live concert going on. Having walked the length of the boardwalk last night, they agreed to check it out instead, there hadn't been much chance to see concerts back in Arizona.
They managed to squeeze through the crowded beach, having discovered that there was a concrete concert space right under the boardwalk. It was wild. On the stage was a muscular, oiled singer. He was passionately singing, pointing and dancing with an eager crowd. There were people of all shapes and sizes crammed together and Sam had to move quickly to avoid being dragged into a crowd of head-banging, blonde surfers.
Standing in front of her two brothers, Elizabeth grinned. The atmosphere was so electric!
"This is crazy!" she half turned her head and shouted at Michael and Sam. Everyone was so into the band on stage and when the singer whipped out a saxophone, the crowd's volume, intensity of the head banging and dancing increased.
Elizabeth was dancing softly to the music, absorbed in the singer and the people around her. Had she glanced behind at her brothers, she would have seen Michael's attention absorbed solidly somewhere else.
In the crowd, at the back and close to the boardwalk steps was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She had huge, doe eyes and thick, curly black hair. With every movement, her gold bangles glistened, her sequinned belt shone. She was enchanting and Michael couldn't look away.
Sammy glanced at his brother and followed his line of sight but what? It was just a bunch of people watching the show. He directed his brothers face back towards the stage, patted it and looked down at his sister. She was really into the music and he grinned, wondering if she knew how stupidly she was dancing. She was such a dork. He nudged Michael in the side, wanting him to look at their sister too but once again, Michael was staring into the distance behind them.
"Hey, Mike-" but his brother was frowning. Softly but firmly he moved Sam out of the way, pushing through the crowd. Sam noticed one of the people from the crowd, a girl with wild hair, was also moving away.
Michael was already a few spaces ahead of him.
"Liz!" grabbing his sister's hand, he pulled her along, rushing to catch up to Mike. He didn't know how, but Michael was deftly moving through the crowds, moving fast.
"Guys, wait, what's up?" Elizabeth asked, trying to make Sam stop, "Michael?" she shouted again.
"Hey Mike!" Sam repeated.
Michael lost sight of the girl in the crowd. With a silent groan, he turned to Elizabeth and Sam.
"Please, can you not just give me the rest of the night off?" he asked.
Sam gave a knowing 'ahhhhhh' and nodded, he looked at Elizabeth, "He's chasing that girl.."
"What girl?" she asked in confusion.
"There's a girl" Sam told her, "he's chasing a girl! Aw man. Come on, admit it buddy! We're at the mercy of your sex glands here!" he laughed.
"Sammy. God, Sammy, come on? Isn't there anything else you'd rather be doing?" Michael asked desperately and it didn't take him even a second to dash off when Sam said, "...actually, yeah. There is."
Sam had spotted the comic book shop again, the shutters open and displays outside.
He made a step towards it, turning to his sister, "you wanna come?"
"Um" she looked around her briefly. She really wasn't into comic books, she used to read Sam's when he would let her, but it wasn't her passion and she hadn't found one she had really liked.
Wander alone, wander the comic book shop?
The shop looked pretty dingy, though she couldn't see inside clearly. Sam was looking longingly at the comic book shop again and had taken another step towards it.
"Sorry, no. I'm good. You're good?" she asked, pointing to the shop.
"Yeah. You sure? I mean-" he was looking at her again, concern flashing across her face.
"No, no I'm good. Really," she meant it. She didn't want to stop her brother enjoying himself, "Maybe I'll find that fried butter?" she grinned, "I'll see you back at the car. Fourty-ish minutes, right?"
"Right!" he confirmed, giving her a bright smile and turning to the comic book store.
He was gone pretty fast and Elizabeth started walking just to avoid looking like a solitary lump. She wasn't sure where she was headed but, she followed the crowds slowly, waiting for something to catch her eye.