"Did we decide on whose staying?" Victor asked after shutting his alarm off. It was 6:30 am.

Neither Victor nor Darcy wanted to get up. They sat on each side of the bed, rubbing their faces and yawning.

"I said I would stay." Darcy yawned.

"Oh, right. I still think I should stay." Victor's turn to yawn.

"Why not ask Sísele?" Emily suggested as she walked by her parents' open door.

Victor and Darcy looked out the door. They didn't say anything. Victor chuckled.

"That is a good idea." Victor commented.

Darcy nodded, rolling her eyes. She stretched her arms and back. "I'll call her and ask."

"I'll get ready so I can pick her up." Victor jumped to his feet. His turn to stretch.

"How about I go to her house?" Emily suggested walking by the open door again.

Darcy and Victor looked out the open door, again.

"She planned this." Darcy said.

Victor chuckled. "Are you sure she's sick?"

"Call her, Em." Darcy called.

Emily darted past the open door. Victor and Darcy chuckled.

"Good morning Sísele." Emily said. "Can I spend the day with you? Mom says I have to stay home from school......No, I'm fine......I know, just cuz the dumb doctor said I need to rest......Okay....I'll let them know......Thank you, see you soon." Emily hung up. She ran to the bottom of the stairs and hollered up, "she said I can."

"Stop running!" Darcy called down.

Emily frowned. She swore she didn't make a sound. How did she know she ran. She walked into the kitchen and got herself apple juice.

It was a rush to get out the door. Victor offered to drop Emily off at her sísele's house, but Darcy said she would. It was a questionable moment, but no one wanted to say anything.

"Will I be here all day? Like, am I spending the night?" Emily asked as Darcy drove her.

"No. Remember Piper is dropping off your homework and notes today." Darcy said.

Emily looked out her window. Her sísele lived down the road from their house. Darcy drove by it every afternoon on her way home from work. A ten minute drive from home.

"You know, I don't feel sick, mom." Emily said.

"I'm sure you don't, but the doctor said to rest. So you're staying home."

Emily sighed.

When they arrived at Darcy's mom's house, Emily jumped out of the car and ran to the door.

"Stop running!" Darcy said, sternly.

Emily stopped running and laughed. "It's hard being sick, mom. I have to run a little bit."

"Nope." Darcy shook her head.

Emily sighed, again. She threw open the door and bounced in.

"Mom?" Darcy called when she walked inside.

"I'm here." Her mom answered.

"Sísele!" Emily squealed. She bounces across the livingroom and hugged her grandmother.

Her sísele laughed. She returned the hug and made Emily sitbon the floor beside her feet. She held her hand on her lap.

"Hi, mom." Darcy sighed.

"Oohh, Darshy. I'm glad you ashked me to watch her. I have some things I'd like her to do for me today." Sísele smiled.

"No, mom. The doctor said for her to rest."

"Ah." Sísele waved her hand toward Darcy. "If she need resht, her body will tell 'er to resht. She'sh fine." She smiled down at Emily and gave her hand a shake.

Emily beamed.

"Mom, please. I don't want her to get any worse."

"You got fever?" Sísele asked Emily. She put her hand on her forehead.

Emily shook her head.

"You tired?"

Emily shook her head.

"You tummy feel icky?"

Emily shook her head.

Sísele looked at Darcy. "She'sh fine, Darshy. I take care of her. Our people rarely shtopped working. Ahh, they work." She waved her hand toward the window. "Hunting and fishing. They work. If they too shick to move, they didn't work. And a medishine man would come and make them better." Sísele looked at Emily. "You need medishin man?"

Emily looked at Sísele with wide eyes.

Darcy sighed. "No, mom. She doesn't need a medicine man. She's not that kind of sick."

"Don't matter what kind of shick. They jusht shick. Medishin man helped them."

"Okay, mom? Promise me no medicine man. Please?"

Sísele laughed. "Ah. I tell you if she needsh one. She'sh fine."

"Alright. I'll be back to pick her up after work. Did you want to come over, mom?"

Sísele stopped giggling. She looked at Darcy. "Ohhh. Shure. I'll come." She looked back at Emily and laughed, again.

"Okay." Darcy nodded. "I'm off at 4:30. I'll be by to pick you two up." Darcy turned and walked out of the house. She could hear her mom laughing as she left. Darcy couldn't help herself, she smiled. She could hear her mom was happy. It's was too long since the last visit. Darcy was adamant to give Victor's idea a try. She was going to see how this weekend went before inviting her over next weekend.

Darcy pulled out her cell and dialled the school. "Good morning. This is Darcy Conners."

"Oh, hello Darcy. How's Emily?" The receptionist asked.

"She doing good. Doctor said it was the flu and asked that she rest. So she won't be coming in today. Can her teachers make sure to give Piper all her homework, please?"

"Oh, of course. I'll let them all know. I'll just have them bring the work up to me and Piper can pick it up after school."

Darcy could hear her smiling. "Is Piper not in all of Emily's classes?"

"No, I don't think so. I think there's one class they don't have together."

"Okay, could you ask if he could photocopy the notes for today?"

"I can ask him. I'm sure it won't be a problem, but I'll have to see."

"Thank you." Darcy smiled.

"Oh, you're welcome. Tell Emily I hope she feels better and maybe we'll see her on Monday?"

"I hope so." Darcy crossed her fingers.

"Okay. Thanks for calling, Darcy, bye." She hung up the phone.

Darcy hung up and backed out of the driveway.

The day seemed to have dragged on. Veronica called about how Victor saved her life and her home. The Clacken's called to say Victor forgot a tool over there. Emily called about fifteen times, asking if she can do things. Darcy shook her head whenever she thought about those calls. And Mrs. Redhorn called. She wanted to know about Emily.

"Hi, Mrs. Redhorn. How are you, today?" Darcy asked.

"Nevermind me! How's Emily?"

"Emily is fine Mrs. Redhorn. Thank you for asking."

"Well I thought it was terrible how she fell like that. We were so worried. And lucky I told your mom. Why don't you tell her anything?" Mrs. Redhorn asked.

Darcy was instantly annoyed. She wanted to yell at her for what she did. Tell her to mind her own business or start eating shit. Instead, Darcy smiled and took a deep breath. "What goes on between me and my mom is our business, Mrs. Redhorn. And I'd appreciate it if you didn't make personal calls to my work phone."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Mrs. Redhorn sounded patronizing. "You're right. You're right. I hear Emily is next door?"

Darcy tightened her lips. Emily is not feeling well, Mrs. Redhorn." She tried to refrain from expressing her protective annoyance. "She has the flu. I would appreciate it if you would leave her be."

"Oh, of course I will, Darcy. I'll let you get back to work, now." Mrs. Redhorn hung up.

Darcy plugged her phone back in its cradle and shook her head. It would be like Mrs. Redhorn to go over and pester Emily about what happened. And then she'd rile up Darcy's mother again with all these worries. Darcy figured she tried to hard to be 'non-native'.

Sísele would talk about the old ways. How the community would help raise the children. If one child was misbehaving, the adult or elder who seen it would step in and put them to work. The children's curfew was always dusk, the elders instilled the fear of th'ōxiya into them. Each adult and elder worked together. They informed each other. Darcy didn't see anything in that that depicted nosiness and causing a stir. The elders taught the children to be calm. Darcy lost a lot of respect for Mrs. Redhorn for what she's caused with her family. She had hoped that she would find a weaker person to 'be friends' with and leave her mother alone.

Darcy a cell phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hi, babe." Victor said.

Darcy looked at the time, 4:40. "I didn't realize it was this late."

"How's your mom?"

"Excited. She wouldn't stop laughing when I dropped Emily off."

Victor chuckled. "Did you talk to her about dinner tomorrow?"

"She's coming tonight."

There was silence on the phone.

"Are you sure, Darc? I thought you wanted to ease into it." Victor asked cautiously.

"I know. She looked so happy with Emily and I thought about what you said.....I just asked her. I told her I'd pick her up after work but I'm not done her yet. I'd get out in about 10 min or so." Darcy slapped some papers around on her desk.

"Okay, well I'll head over now and wait for you. Make sure your mom has what she needs. Is the spare room ready?"

"Yes, it's ready." Darcy sighed. "I'll finish up and head over there."

Darcy and Victor spoke for another minute before hanging up. Darcy was distracted from yesterday and the phone call with Mrs. Redhorn. She spent the next ten minutes putting the paperwork away in their files and locking those files in the cabinet.

"Hey, Bertha." Victor said. He went and sat down on Sísele's couch.

Sísele smiled at Victor. "Heeyyyy." She chuckled.

Emily was laying down on the floor staring at the ceiling.

"How'd she do today?" Victor asked.

"Good. She did good, ya." Sísele nodded, giggling.

"You spending the night at our house? Or did you want to come back home tonight?"

"Ohhh. I go get my shtuff." Sísele got to her feet and shuffled to her room.

Emily rolled over and looked at her dad. "Does mom know what you're doing?"

Victor laughed. "Yes, she does. What did you do today?"

"I'm not telling you." Emily rolled back onto her back. "You'd tell mom and mom would get mad and I'd have to listen to her and Sísele argue all night."

Victor nodded. "Well if you don't tell me you're going to have to tell your mom. And I won't be able to help you if I don't know what's going on. But, if you think you're well enough to take your mom on by yourself, that's fine with me."

"Fine." Emily barked. "I helped Sísele sweep and wash the canning jars. I helped her put them on the canning shelf and make space in the kitchen for canning season. I had to pull them all out of her crawlspace, too. That was gross."

Victor frowned. "You're right. Mom will get mad. Sorry, Em. I can't help you on that one. You did more than I was comfortable letting you do."

Emily gapped at Victor. "You promised!"

"No, I didn't. I implied that you would need help and that I may help you. I didn't promise a thing."

Emily growled. "Whatever, dad. You suck."

Victor smiled. "How about we minimize what we tell her? Leave out the part where you pulled the jars out?"

"That's lying by omission. Besides, Sísele will tell her anyway." Emily pouted.

"Maybe not. How about we wait and see what happens."

Emily looked at him and smirked.

"Victor. Come 'ere." Sísele called from the bedroom.

Victor got up and went down the hall.

Emily was feeling lazy. She didn't want to move.

"What do you need Sísele?" Victor asked as he walked into her bedroom.

Get me my shutcashe." She said. She pointed into her closet.

Victor turned and looked. His enthusiasm diminished.

Piles of boxes and clothes were falling out of her closet. Trinkets and unopened parsels were all astrew. Wrapping paper, towels, ribbon, material, bins of beads were everywhere.

Victor knew his mother-in-law hoarded certain things, her house was full of boxes. But this was the messiest pile he's seen.

Victor hesitated. "Where is it?" He asked.

"In my closhet." She answered.

Victor nodded slowly. He wasn't looking forward to filtering through the pile. He took a deep breath, hesitated, hoped the laundry was clean then dove in.