Nina looked out of her window to see Dr. Brown standing in his front yard, looking at his house. Nina pulled on her coat and walked out onto her front porch. She stood for a few moments looking at Dr. Brown as he surveyed his recently decorated house. The look on his face was not one of delight. Nina leaned forward to get a better look at his house. She didn't blame him for his lack of exhilaration. Only one thing on the entire house was level. It had a tinge of humor to its appearance but Nina suppressed the grin.
"Looking good!" she called out to him. His head turned to see her.
"Liar!" he yelled back at her. She smiled and walked down her front steps and over to him. She stood at his side and surveyed the house from that point of view. Nina nodded her head.
"You've never done this before, have you?" she asked him. He chuckled slightly and shook his head.
"Is it that obvious?" he asked. She looked over house again and nodded.
"Yea Andy, it really is," she said and he chuckled again.
"It'll be better next year."
"Yea but what about Christmas?" Nina asked him. Dr. Brown looked at her.
"I'll hire somebody," he said. Nina smiled.
"You should get my husband to do it. He's won the house decorating contest for the past three years," Nina said.
"Yea, where is your husband anyway?" Dr. Brown asked her. Nina sighed.
"Tokyo. Oh, that reminds me. Is there anything Ephram might like from there? For his birthday or something?"
"I'll have to ask him. He might want something for Jig."
"The girl staying with Edna and Irv? Who is she exactly? I've only heard rumors."
"Edna's great niece. Her and Ephram seem to have really hit it off."
"I thought Ephram liked Amy Abbott?" Nina asked him curiously. Dr. Brown nodded.
"He does. Ephram and Jig are just friends."
"Hm. Now, Jig would be Amy's, second cousin?" Nina asked not quite sure of it. Dr. Brown answered her with a nod.
"And Dr. Abbott's her first cousin once removed," Dr. Brown added with a smile.
"Jig must be Laura's grand daughter," Nina said thinking about it.
"Who's Laura?" Dr. Brown asked tilting his head curiously.
"Edna's little sister. Married rich, moved to California," Nina explained. Dr. Brown's eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Married rich, huh?" he asked her to make sure. Nina nodded.
"Yea. Why?"
"Well… When I got Jig's medical records from her old doctor, I recognized his name. He started a free clinic in the poor districts of Los Angeles…"
"Oh yea… Well, ten years ago the family kicked Jig and Kathy out of the family. Completely cut them off," Nina said. Dr. Brown again looked confused.
"That doesn't sound like Edna," he said. Nina shook her head.
"It wasn't. Edna was the only one who still cared at all about either of them."
"Why would they abandon Jig and her mom?" Dr. Brown asked more himself than Nina. Nina shrugged.
"That's one of the greatest mysteries. No one but the family knows, and they're keeping a tight seal on it," Nina explained. They both fell silent for a few moments before Dr. Brown turned his head back to her.
"Nina, why is Jig here?" he asked her. Nina looked away from the disaster back to him.
"All I hear are rumors, at the café. I wish I could tell you, but I can't. Doesn't Ephram know?" Nina asked surprised.
"No, I don't think so."
"Hm, you'd think she would have told him."
"Yea. You'd think she would…"
"What's wrong with you kid?" Edna asked walking into the living room and spotting Jig sitting on the couch staring into space. Edna stopped walking when she didn't get a response and a worried look overtook her face. She took a few steps closer to the couch.
"Kid? Hey? Jig?" Edna asked again. Slowly Jig turned her head to look at Edna.
"What?" she asked simply.
"Are you okay? You're not getting sick again are you?" Edna asked and dreaded that the answer might be yes. Jig shook her head.
"No, I'm fine, just, thinking."
"About what?" Edna asked sitting down on the couch next to her. Edna was now in charge of this kid. She had to act like she was a caring parent again. It was a step back through time but she was trying to make it.
"I had a dream last night, about my mom," Jig said folding her arms over her chest. Edna frowned. That was a subject Edna was hoping would never come up, but knew it would.
"That's going to happen a lot kiddo," Edna told her. Jig nodded.
"I know," she replied. Edna sighed.
"Listen, if, if you need to talk about it or anything-"
"Thanks Edna. I know you'd be there, but don't worry, I wouldn't do that to you," Jig said with a smile. Edna chuckled slightly and patted Jig on the knee and she stood up.
"Thanks kid, but if you do…"
"I know," Jig said. Edna nodded and walked out of the room.
"See, this is my tail. My mom bought me a feather boa for it. Now the whiskers here are actually aluminum foil. My dad says I can get cable on them but I don't believe him," Murasaki said smiling. She and Delia were sitting in Delia's living room. Murasaki had a drawing of a cat costume spread out in front of them. She had drawn it herself and was actually quite proud of it. Delia sat silently listening to her new friend. She wished she had drawn a picture of her witch costume. She bought hers from a store, but Murasaki and her family made hers. That must have been fun.
"Hey guys, Nina just brought these over for you," he said placing a plate of cookies in front of them. Delia had her first friend over and Dr. Brown wanted to make sure she'd do it again. There was nothing like Nina's cookies to convince someone to come back.
"Thanks Dad," Delia told him.
"You're welcome. Hey, that drawing's really good, did you do it?" he asked Murasaki. She nodded her head smiling. Dr. Brown smiled.
"Well it's really good."
"Thank you."
"Hey Murasaki, do you want to go see my costume?" Delia asked her excitedly. Murasaki nodded and they both ran out of the room. Dr. Brown had to smile. Delia was happy again.
Desi leaned back in her chair and rubbed her chin. She had been studying anime for the past two or three hours. There were just so many of them. How Ephram could keep track of them all she had no idea. He must be some kind of genius or something. She got the best grades in school and she still had trouble telling all of the gundams apart. Actually she had to admit, she was beginning to enjoy some of them. Some of the artistry was amazing. She downloaded an episode of a show called Dragon Ball Z, and despite the fact it was all fighting, the animation looked really good. She had to wonder if the art teacher would ever teach the kids how to draw like that. She leaned over and clicked to another window. It was a newspaper article about Julia Brown's death. There was a picture from the funeral and Ephram was in it. He looked so sad Desi's heart broke. It must have been so horrible for him. His little sister was crying in the picture but Ephram's face was dry. It was amazing. Every day Ephram Brown was becoming more and more amazing to her.
To her dismay, and surprise, an idea had crossed Desi's mind. Ephram Brown had enough going on in his life and she knew it. Maybe she shouldn't be writing this article about him, about his dad. Maybe she shouldn't use him like this. But she really wanted to write that article. It was her ticket to mainstream writing and she knew it. The school newspaper, the Pinecone, that was nothing. She had been writing for both for years. She wrote half of the articles in the Pinecone and everyone knew it. She wanted bigger things. She knew the Browns were her way there. But, if there was a way she could get there, without stepping on people. Geez, if her father knew she was thinking such things he'd have a fit. He was a politician; his career was based on stepping on people. But Desi wasn't sure if she wanted to do that anymore. She didn't have a lot of friends, no one trusted her. She was really lonely. She never thought about it before. She really was lonely. She wasn't sure if she had ever known how to be otherwise. She really had something to work on here.
Amy sat in lab. She sat in lab but her mind was in Colin's hospital room as it tended to be. She could hear Taylor talking to her, and Ephram and Wendell talking behind her, but she didn't feel like saying anything to anyone. She just couldn't get the image of Colin laying there, battered and bruised, out of her mind. It was a horrible image, she hated it with her entire being, but it wouldn't let go of her. Slowly her hand went to the cross that was hanging around her neck. She had given it to Colin to hold but it had been given back to her. Why did Colin ever gone into that damned coma? Had she done something to deserve this pain? Was this repentance for some unknown crime? Was it even her crime? She couldn't think of any action she had ever done to possibly deserve what she had been put through for the last four months. Her hands went to the clasp of her necklace. She unlatched and removed it from her neck. She then opened a pocket in her bag and placed it there.
"Amy, are you okay?" she heard Ephram's voice ask her. Amy turned around to see him looking at her, this extreme degree of worry overtaking his face. She nodded.
"Yea, just bored," she said and rolled her eyes while placing a smile on her face. Ephram looked like he didn't believe her but nodded in some deep understanding and turned back around.
