Chapter 8

Wednesday morning started as usual for the Brady Bunch. Alice was the first to get up, and before long, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy came into the kitchen for breakfast and greeted the housekeeper. Peter came into the kitchen a few minutes after the others and smiled at the woman in blue.

"Hey, Alice," he greeted.

"Morning, Peter," Alice said with a smile.

Peter sat at the table with his siblings and did a double take. He watched as Alice stared at the toaster – waiting for crispy toast to pop out. Something was different about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Alice, did you dye your hair?" Jan's voice cut through Peter's head.

Peter blinked and looked at Alice. Now that Jan had mentioned it, Alice's hair did look a little darker.

Alice's eyes popped out in surprise. "No, honey, what made you think that?" Alice asked the middle child.

"It looks a bit darker," Jan said.

Alice's eyes widened. "Really?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah, it does!"

Alice laughed a little. "Well, I'll be!" Alice's face turned serious again as she stared at the kids. "Are you sure that you're not just lying to make me feel better?"

"No, Alice," Cindy said – playing with her hair to ensure that it was still in a bun. "In fact, it also looks like you have fewer wrinkles!"

Alice furrowed her brows and smirked. "Thanks, honey, I think that's one compliment too many." The kids at the table laughed, and even Alice herself joined in the laughter.

Within ten minutes, the Bradys were all present in the kitchen – Mike and Carol being the last to arrive.

"Morning, Mr. Brady," Alice said with a big smile. She then turned to Carol and greeted, "Good morning, Mrs. Brady."

Mike and Carol both greeted Alice, but Carol did a double take. "Alice? Did you do something to your hair?"

Alice grinned and said, "Not that I know of, but whatever happened, I'm happy!"

Peter placed a hand on his chin. "You know, I wonder if the meteorite has anything to do with it."

Mike cast a skeptical glance at his son. "Peter, you don't really believe that stuff, do you?"

"The scientists do, and they're scientists!" Bobby said – stating the obvious.

"And I for one don't understand why such men are promoting ideas like that when they themselves admitted that they don't have hard evidence that age-reversing cosmic rays exist!" Mike declared as Carol and he took seats at the table.

A few minutes passed before Alice spoke. "Mr. Brady? Mrs. Brady?" The husband and wife turned their heads to look at Alice. "I can't help but noticing that you two look really good yourselves!"

"Alice, don't tell me that you believe in that theory," Carol said.

The housekeeper shook her head. "I was just going to ask if you two remember when you made that bust of Mr. Brady." Mike and Carol nodded. Alice smirked and said, "Well, call me crazy, but I'd like to make a bust of the two of you myself! It would make up for the time when I broke the one that you made, Mrs. Brady."

Carol smiled. "Alice, that's really thoughtful of you, but we've already forgiven you. We know that you didn't mean to break it."

Alice shook her head. "It's not about that. I just think that it would be fun to try sculpting! After all, you two look really great."

Mike and Carol looked at each other and laughed before turning their attention back to Alice. "Sure, why not?" Mike suggested. "I might as well take another day off work to spend time with my beautiful wife!" The architect then planted another kiss on his wife's cheek.

Carol playfully waved her right hand – but then raised a finger and said, "Better yet, why don't we make another sculpture of you, Alice?"

Alice's eyes popped open. "Me?" She giggled. "Well, okay!"

A short while later, the Brady kids finished breakfast and grabbed their lunches from Alice. While walking through the living room, Bobby watched as Marcia reached to open one of the green double doors.

"Hey, Marcia?" he called from across the living room.

Marcia's hand hovered over the doorknob as she turned to look at Bobby. "Yeah?" she asked.

"You look different, too," Bobby said as Mike and Carol walked up behind him.

Marcia furrowed her brows in confusion. "Different?"

"Yeah," Bobby said. "I don't know how to describe it…thinner, maybe?"

Marcia narrowed her eyes even more. "Thinner?" she asked with a hint of disgust in her voice.

"Now, Bobby, your sister doesn't look any different than she did yesterday," Mike stated.

Bobby shrugged. "Maybe you're right," he said as Marcia and Greg walked out of the house. With that, he followed the rest of his siblings outside.

That afternoon, Mike and Carol stood in the brown, wood paneled family room while Alice did her best to mold clay. However, no matter how hard she tried, Alice couldn't seem to make a sculpture that even remotely resembled Mike or Carol. On the table were only two round balls of brown clay with dark, black holes and crooked, triangular noses. Finally, Alice sighed – lowering her hands as she gave up.

"I'm really sorry, but after all, I am a novice," Alice apologized.

Mike waved his right hand. "Oh, it's okay, Alice, don't worry about it! It's the thought that counts."

Alice smiled as she turned to look at the clay sculpture sitting on the counter shared by the family room and the kitchen. "And I really appreciate the sculpture that you made. It looks just like me!" Alice then narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized the sculpture. "Now, I know that Cindy said that I had fewer wrinkles, but this sculpture still looks a little lumpy. Maybe you could try smoothing it out some more," the housekeeper said with a smirk. With that, Mike, Carol, and Alice laughed.

Alice left the family room to wash her hands while Mike turned on the TV. After sitting next to her on the checkered sofa, Mike put his arm around his wife, and the two smiled and kissed each other as Marcia opened the sliding glass doors. Mike and Carol jerked their heads toward the doors when they heard the screeching and saw Marcia with a big smile on her face.

"Hi, Mom! Hi, Dad!" she greeted as she entered the family room and put her books next to Alice's sculptures on the red, round table.

"Hi, Marcia," Carol said. "You seem to be in a good mood!"

"I am," Marcia said. "People at school have been telling me all day that I look thin. It's actually making me think about joining the Westdale Boosters again!"

Mike and Carol frowned at that remark. "Honey, I thought that you didn't want to have anything to do with that group," Mike said.

Marcia shrugged. "Well, since everyone tells me that I'm thin now, I think that I would fit in well with them." Marcia grinned at her parents and then walked into the kitchen.

Mike and Carol stared at each other with concern. "Mike, is there anything that we should do?" Carol questioned.

The architect shook his head. "Honey, Marcia's in high school now. She's got to make her own choices. So far, it doesn't look like she's let her appearance go to her head, so I wouldn't worry about it."

Carol watched her eldest daughter pouring herself a glass of milk in the kitchen, and then, her attention shifted back to the TV. However, just above the TV, hanging on the stone wall were several studio portraits that had been taken close to a year earlier. Carol stared at the picture of Marcia. Over the past year, Marcia had developed a more mature figure, but when Carol looked at her daughter in the kitchen, she did seem to look "thinner" as Bobby had described her. In particular, she didn't look any different than in the studio portrait.

"Mike, look at Marcia, and look at her picture on the wall from almost a year ago," Carol whispered – pointing to the picture. Mike's brows furrowed as he did just that. "You don't think…"

"No, it couldn't be!" Mike responded. Despite that, he found it hard to watch TV as he kept shifting his gaze left and right at Marcia and her picture from nearly a year earlier.