Mom Over Miami - By Annie Jones Page 0,43
since Daddy’s last stunt had anyone responded with such unreasoned childishness.
At least once a day, maybe more, Hannah secretly wished her aunt would fly back to China or India or even just drive to the drugstore long enough to give Hannah a breather. But hearing her announce her plans to leave, the truth hit Hannah. For once in her life, someone had come running to her first, not to her sisters. If Aunt Phiz ran off to Sadie’s aid at this first bit of small trouble, where would that leave Hannah?
Talking to herself. That’s where. And it had already been pointed out to her that she was no good at that kind of thing.
Suddenly she felt like the lost, lonely child she had once been. She wished her aunt could pack her up in a suitcase and fly her away.
“Give me the phone, honey.” Phiz stuck out her open palm.
“No, wait!” Sadie, who for someone who had the patience of a gnat had gotten pretty good at telling other people to wait, lowered her voice and spoke in a quick, panicked tone. “Tell Aunt Phiz I have things under control. We’ve finally got the MRI scheduled at a time that I can take him.”
Hannah relayed the message word for word.
“I’m hanging up now before she gets a chance to argue. Give her my love.” And Sadie was gone.
“Thanks a lot,” Hannah muttered. She depressed the end call button with one thumb, then showed the turned-off phone to her aunt with a shrug. “Guess Sadie had to run.”
“I’ll bet.” Aunt Phiz shook her head.
Hannah slid the phone into her purse. She paused to listen for the sisters in the next room. “That’s certainly an eerie silence.”
“Maybe they’ve made their peace.”
“Maybe they’re resting in peace. If you know what I mean.” She stuck her tongue out and made a slash across her throat with one finger.
Tessa grabbed her hand in motion and promptly began to gnaw on one knuckle.
“I’d like to go in there and put Tessa in one of the cribs while we finish up in here.”
“Stealth, my dear.” The older woman raised a penciled-in eyebrow. “Get in, get out, don’t get involved.”
Hannah nodded. “Good idea.”
She took a breath, laid her hand on the door and waited. For what, she didn’t know, but that’s what they always told you to do in those Safety First filmstrips at school.
Feel the door to prevent walking into a fiery death trap.
No heat.
No sound.
She glanced back at her aunt.
“Go!” Phiz urged.
“Please excuse me for one moment, ladies, but I need to put Tessa…” She had the baby halfway into the crib before she realized she’d been talking to an empty room.
“Where’d they go?” Aunt Phiz asked.
“I don’t know and I don’t care.” Hannah put the baby down and hurried back through to the toddler room. “Let’s just finish our work here and run before they get back.”
“Yes. Good. When in doubt work fast and get out.” Aunt Phiz held up her index finger. “That shall be the new Shelnutt family motto.”
Hannah liked it. She liked it a little too much.
In fact, she wished she could have put it into action moments later when she and her aunt stood elbow-deep in dirty work and the older woman turned the subject to Hannah’s daddy again.
“MRI, you said?”
“Yes. It’s a magnetic resonance imagining machine.” Hannah made a motion in the air with her free hand to try to indicate the big tube that they would be sliding Moonie into.
“I know what it is, honey. You might recall I hold multiple advanced degrees in history and science.”
“Oh, yeah.” Clod! You did it again. Thought only in terms of yourself and your experience with someone, and ended up missing out on the bigger picture. “I guess when you see someone everyday in curlers and house slippers, you tend to forget she’s a well-educated world traveler. Dopey me.”
“You are not dopey. You are darling. And dedicated. And more than a little distracted.” Soft folds framed Aunt Phiz’s sparkling eyes and kind smile. “But never dopey. Don’t tell yourself different.”
“Thanks.”
“Not only do I know what an MRI is, my dear, I had reason to see one in action a few years back when one of my classes got to observe a mummy being sent through the device.”
“Wow.” Hannah blinked. “That must have been fascinating.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Maybe you can use that story to convince Daddy to give it a try.”
“The test of choice for three-thousand-year-old pharaohs?” She tapped her finger to her cheek. “It