Worth

Chapter 18 (cont.)

In the dark, Violet and Olivia were pretending to be in their childhood bedroom, even though their parents had long since sold the home where they grew up and bought this more modest, centrally located bungalow, not too far from Olivia's and Lee's. It had been too cold and too late, and they'd all been too tired to drive home after Henry and Sheila had said goodnight. They were sleeping in the guest bedroom, Violet clinging more to Olivia than was mutual because she was always so warm. Both had the covers pulled over their noses out of giggly habit and courtesy. A midnight, bread stuffing sandwich dipped in garlic-y gravy was not the most considerate snack when one had a bed mate. Olivia's stomach gurgled plaintively as food met digestive doom.

"There it goes," she said.

"It's good to give those meat enzymes a break now and then," Violet said, though at the moment, she was thinking about another refrigerator raid on the leftover turkey drumsticks. Just one Henry VIII sized bite and maybe a few glazed baby carrots. She threw a non-committed leg out of the covers and let it dangle.

"Again?" Olivia asked.

"You don't have to come. It's still Christmas. I'm allowed."

"It's after midnight."

"The sooner we get rid of the leftovers the better."

"But you know I'll go with you! You'll nibble on crackers and I'll wind up eating the entire crust ring around a pie."

"Did that already," Lee said.

"Which one?" Olivia demanded to know in a hushed threat.

Lee, settled unhappily for the night on an air mattress with a spare quilt next to Olivia's side of the bed, flicked his wrist in the air to ask a question. "Is that okaaay? There are two or three in there anyway."

"Was it a meat pie or dessert?  We have to bring one to your parents tomorrow and I think Mom also wants us to drop one off at Aunt Eileen's"

Lee was silent for too long. Finally he said, "I should get to pick at whatever I want since I'm on the floor."

"You could've slept in the living room but you didn't want to."

"You're my wife! Why should I sleep on the couch? Why can't I sleep up there with you?"

"Because it's gross," Olivia said, trying not to laugh.

"If you're in the middle, why not?"

"Because," Violet said, "this is how things were before you kidnapped my sister and took her back to your village. This is our turf."

"Yeah!" Olivia teased. She stuck her tongue out at Lee and then turned her back to him dramatically.

" And we can't pretend we're little again with you snoring in the middle."

"Olivia, tell her I don't snore."

"She won't hear me through all your snoring."

"I'm coming in!" Lee was now on his knees with a grip on his wife's shoulders. She once again turned to giggle at his pouting face.  "I'm uncomfortable," he whined pitifully.

"Shhh," Olivia laughed.

"Why should I? You should get in trouble."

"Shut up."

"Move over."

"Shhh! Lee, for goodness sake. My parents will kill us."

"Then you come down here!" Lee manoeuvred to the foot of the bed and grabbed Olivia's ankles through the frame. A treacherous sound violation occurred in the form of a tickled screech Olivia could not hold on to. Violet sat up in bed and whipped Lee in the head with one of her pillows. Lee crawled back to Olivia, wrenched a pillow from under her head and smacked them both with it mercilessly.

"If my mother wakes up you're dead," Olivia promised after Violet had taken a corner of the pillow case in an eyeball. She tried to pull the blanket Lee was standing on from under him with no chance of success.

"Ah-ha!" he said triumphantly.

"Lee, go get us a drumstick," said Violet.

The action paused quickly when the three of them heard a creak. At first they thought the culprit was the wood on wood sighing of floor boards, but no, it was followed by the springy sound of a door hinge, not unlike Olivia's stomach coiling. The soft shuffle of feet on the carpet could have been either parent simply heading for the washroom, but these feet had a more direct purpose. Directly to the guest room.

Lee was oblivious, the fool. He returned to the foot of the bed and anchored one foot on the frame preparing to perch and pounce.

"If you break this bed," Violet warned. Olivia kicked. Lee took a few steps back. The bedroom door flew open swiftly. 

Evelyn March regarded Lee suspiciously. Violet could just make out his startled and guilty expression through the smallest eye slits because the second, the very instant, their expert ears had heard the finger brush of contact being made with the doorknob outside, both she and Olivia assumed well practised positions of mimed sleeping. Olivia's wrist rested angelically on her forehead, her lips slightly parted. Violet snored realistically, which is to say it had a ring of dry and heavy breathing as opposed to the fake-out nasal gymnastics of amateurs.

"What's the matter, Lee?" Evelyn asked tolerantly, "too much coffee?"

"Sorry," he said uncomfortably. He made no attempt to turn in his wife or sister-in-law.

Now looking at her daughters Evelyn asked, "Is the heat on too high girls?"

"They're asleep," Lee said.

"Since when does Olivia stay on her side of the bed? They've been doing this since they were babies."

Olivia and Violet started laughing. "Now can I get to sleep? I have to wake up early to make your aunt another pie because your father took a big piece out of it. Lee, don't forget the other one's for your parents. Night-night, kiddies."

She closed the door behind her, feet shuffling back up the hall.

"The other one being the one you demolished?" Violet supposed.

"What do I do?" Lee asked nervously.

"Better get up at five and start rolling some dough," Olivia yawned.

"I'll get up at six and sneak it into my bag.