Marionette

Chapter 3: Neighbours

Chapter 3

     Someone was moving into the house next door. Jamie was at Posy's bedroom window, watching the moving trucks curiously while Posy sat at her writing desk, just as curious but not as desperate. Her parents had already said they'd invite the new neighbours over for dinner. There was no need for Jamie to be standing in her room goose-necked.

     "They have a dog, at least," Jamie said. "I still don't see if they have kids."

     "Do you see anyone at all?" Posy asked.

    "The moving men," Jamie answered, oblivious to Posy's annoyance. Posy rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the poem she was working on.

     "Mom's just left the house," Jamie narrated. "Probably to invite them."

     Posy pretended she hadn't heard him. She pretended the only thing on her mind was whether to make 'bright-side' one word or two.

     "Hold on--Mom's carrying the cookies she made this morning!"

     "What?" Posy's head snapped up. The whole house smelled like her mother's baking. Posy joined her brother at the window to see their mother carrying a tinfoil-covered plate of what could only be sugar cookies. Posy had been looking forward to having one.

     Jamie sighed.

     "I guess I should've stolen a couple while she wasn't looking." he said.

     Posy frowned at the oddity of that sentence and looked at her brother. Jamie returned her gaze with an eyebrow raised and Posy tried not to smile.

     "You didn't."

     Instead of answering, Jamie reached into his pocket and brought out two sugar cookies wrapped in a paper towel. 

     "You know me better than that."

     He held out a cookie to her which she accepted and they ate their cookies while both watching their mother make a peace offering. A couple who looked slightly older than their own parents went to meet her. After a small exchange of words, smiles, and cookies, they went back to their new house and Posy's mother made her way back.

     "Kids! Lunch time!" 

     Posy and Jamie had only seconds of warning when they heard their father coming up the stairs. They quickly hid their cookies behind their backs and Posy rubbed any telling crumbs off of her lips before her dad knocked on her door and poked his head in before she could answer his knock.

     He looked from Jamie's face to Posy's with narrowed eyes.

     "What are you two doing?" he asked.

     Jamie was terrible at lying, so he kept quiet and Posy answered her father.

     "Watching the neighbours move in," she said innocently. She smiled her sweetest smile.

     "That's it?"

     Jamie nodded while Posy continued. "Well, I was trying to write a poem and Jamie was annoying me talking non-stop about every single piece of furniture to come out of the moving trucks."

     Jamie gave her a look, again with his eyebrow raised.

     "Okay," their father said. "Well, you can spy on our new neighbours after we've had lunch. C'mon, your mother made cucumber sandwiches."