After slamming the front door in Mrs. Kravitz's nosy face, Liza felt like a ragdoll. Her knees gave way as everything started spinning. All color faded to white. Then she heard a high pitched hissing noise. Finally the white turned to black and Liza went tumbling down.

Peep watched his mother faint. He ran and got the autumn dish towel  and soaked it with cold water. Then he slapped it on Liza's forehead. It dripped everywhere. Her head, neck and shoulders were sopping wet.

Peep kneeled by his mother and gently patted her cheek. When she didn't come around he patted harder until finally...SLAP!  "Mom... Mama... LIZA!"

Slowly Liza opened her eyes and saw Peep two inches from her face. He looked frantic. Taking the dripping dish towel off she asked, "What happened?"

Peep rambled, "Mrs. Kravitz pissed you off as usual. You slammed the door in her face and then you fell down.

Liza remembered. "Our house it's..."

Peep fake smiled. "It's buttercup yellow with blue doors and shutters. That's what you said you always wanted, right ma?"

Liza looked confused.

"Ma, it's your birthday surprise! Don't you like it?"

Peep hated to lie to his mother but he knew the rules. She had to believe in Locket before they met. If not he'd lose Locket forever. Which, at this point, might not be a bad thing. "Don't be mad ma, pleeeeeeease." Helping his mother sit up he added, "I thought you liked surprises."

"Peep, help me to the sofa." Once seated Liza downed the rest of her coffee in one gulp. Holding out the mug she asked, "Hit me again, would ya?"

As Peep handed his mother a fresh cup of coffee he tried his best to explain. "I wanted to surprise you with a newly painted house."

Liza's eyes got really big. "You did this?"

Peep answered, "Ma, I'm almost 9 years old. How could a nine year old paint a whole house?"

"But somehow you're behind all of this, right Peep?"

"If by 'behind all of this' you mean who loves you more than anybody in the whole-wide-world? Then yes!" One big cheesy grin coming up.

"But how?" Liza looked incredulous. "Why? When?"

"You forgot who and what ma."

"Don't be a smart alec Peep. I want answers."

"Okay here's the thing.... Tomorrow, October 27th is your birthday right? A friend of mine got me the hook up! Happy Birthday!"

"Peep, that explains nothing. Who paints someone's house for free?"

"Ma, you've always say don't look a gift dog in the mouth."

Liza corrected, "It's gift horse. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Well either way--your looking! What do you tell me to do when grandma gives me a lame present—like tube socks or the Candyland game?" Peep doesn't wait for Liza to answer. "You tell me to say THANK YOU! Well I'm still waiting for a thank you..."

Liza is still shocked. "Thank you?"

"You're welcome." He asked, "Was that so hard?"

Liza shook her head. She couldn't win an argument with this kid.

Peep needed to get Liza out of the house. He wanted to wring a certain blue fairy's tiny neck! "You'd better hurry up ma or you'll miss Oskar's game."

Stunned Liza walked up the stairs muttering to herself. "Something's not right... Maybe I need to see a doctor? I'll wake up from this dream and everything will go back to normal. Normal? What's normal?..."

Hello kitty met her at the top of the stairs. She meowed and Liza picked her up. "Hiya baby..." And all was forgotten. Kittens have a way of making you live in the moment.

After Liza left for the game Peep stood in his room and called, "Locket! Locket!" He didn't know how to summon the fairy. "Does she have a magical window? Maybe I need to be in trouble? No... she's the one who makes trouble." He crawled back into bed and fell asleep.

Tap, tap, tap... TAP, TAP, TAP!

Peep opened his eyes and saw Locket tapping at his bedroom window.  "Let me in Peep!"

Opening the window Peep asked Locket, "You mean to tell me you can paint an entire house inside and out but you can't get through one pane of glass?"

Locket shivered, "It's chilly out there this morning." She zipped in and sat on top of the globe. "I've told you, I can only enter an open window. Why'd you shut it all the way?"

"My mother did. Speaking of my mother, she thinks she's losing her mind!"

Dejected Locket asked, "Aw... she didn't like the present?"

"No she didn't like the present! Our whole house is freaking yellow and blue! Inside and out!"

Locket zipped down to Hello's food bowl. "You didn't feed her yet? It's almost 10 o'clock!"

"Sor-reeeee! I've been a bit distracted!" He put a pellet into the kitten's bowl and added three drops of water. After it expanded, Hello gobbled up her kibble.

"If you forget she'll grow up and poop and pee just like normal cats do. Do you want a normal cat Peep?"

"Maybe! Maybe I want a normal life with normal hair, normal skin and a normal cat!"

Suddenly the word NORMAL sounded altogether strange and Peep laughed uncontrollably. Locket joined the laugh-fest until their cheeks and tummies ached. Both he and Locket knew Peep never wanted a normal life.

After they settled down Peep asked, "Can you make the inside of our house normal?"

Hearing the word normal again set them on another laughing fit.

Afterward Locket said, "As you like," and the inside of the house returned to normal."

Maybe Liza will think she imagined the whole thing? Nah...

---

Later that afternoon Liza and Oskar returned home. Peep and Taz met them at the front door.

Oskar asked, "Peep have you seen our house? It's been painted! We have the prettiest house on the block!"

Peep looked at Liza. "Did you hear that ma? We've got the prettiest house on the block."

Liza mumbled, "Yeah, yeah..." She walked into the kitchen. When she saw her oak cabinets and walls back to normal Liza passed out cold on the brick-patterned linoleum floor.

Oskar and Peep rushed over to their mother. Peep filled a Scooby Doo glass with water and dumped it on Liza's head.

Liza came to. "W-w-what happened?"

Oskar answered, "You fainted."

Peep added, "Again."

-End of Chapter 14-

Author's note: Happy Fall y'all! It is Halloween!