Me and Daddo are on our third movie. The sun is down and it’s darker in the house, but I watched when he made
dinner because our house has an “open floor plan,” that’s what Mommy calls it, and you can see everything in the
kitchen from the living room. We’re just up the hall from the den and sometimes Daddo gets up and goes and
grabs something from there because he’s still doing work even if he’s just watching movies and every time he does
I want him to hurry back from the front of the house because the stairs are up there at the front and I don’t want
him hearing any creaking.
We’ve been watching “easy movies.” That’s what Daddo calls movies with a lot of jokes and people falling in
love. Sometimes, when I’m in my bedroom, I hear Mommy and Daddo watching movies that aren’t easy.
Loud, scary music and people screaming and sounds of violence. It used to be Other Mommy would stand at the
end of my bed and cover both my ears with her hands so I didn’t have to hear the not-easy movies. But I was littler
then.
Daddo rolls his eyes at a joke in the movie, but I can tell he likes it.
Mommy makes fun of him for liking bad jokes but Daddo doesn’t mind. I think he likes when Mommy makes fun
of him. Maybe they fell in love watching movies like these.
I wish Mommy was here to fall even more in love with Daddo.
You hear that? Daddo asks. I think she’s home.
I listen for Mommy.
She’s not home yet, I say.
Daddo looks at the clock. He frowns.
Thought I heard someone, he says.
He gets up and I get up too.
Urs? Daddo calls.
Ursula. That’s Mommy’s really cool name. Daddo’s name is Russ and that’s okay too.
Urs, you home?
I follow Daddo out of the living room and up the hall to the foot of the stairs.
Urs?
He turns to look out the glass-brick windows that frame the front door and I peek into the dining room.
Is she sitting at the dining-room table in the dark? Is that her?
What is it? Daddo asks. Why’d you just gasp?
He looks into the dining room too but he doesn’t see her.
Maybe it’s not her.
Other Mommy has never come downstairs before.
Daddo st eps into the den and looks out the windows and I take a st ep into the dark dining room and I hear
breathing.
Are you downstairs? I ask.
The front door opens so suddenly, I scream.
Mommy is home like Daddo thought she was.
You two! Mommy says.
She sounds a little loud.
You two look like you saw a ghost.
Mommy turns on the foyer light and I look into the dining room and nobody is sitting at the table. Nobody is
breathing there in the dark.
We’ve been watching romantic comedies, Daddo says.
Mommy smiles.
Scary stuff, Mommy says. Then, to me: Have you been good?
She’s been weird all day, Daddo says.
Have not, I say.
Mommy struggles to take her purse off her shoulder. She sets it on the bench in the foyer, but she sets it too close
to the edge and it falls off.
Whoops, Mommy says. What a night.
She picks it up and when she’s standing again Daddo tries to kiss her. I think it’s because of the movies we
watched.
But Mommy just st eps past him and into the hall toward the living room and she says, What would you two do
without me. Russ, you want a drink?
Daddo says, The answer to that— And then at the same time they both say, Is always yes.
All right, Bela, Mommy says. Just because your daddo doesn’t believe in bedtime doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Daddo looks at me.
Do you think it’s real? he asks.
I think of what I saw at the dining-room table. The shape in there.
Is what real? I ask.
Daddo smiles.
Bedtime, he says. Is it real or... He wiggles his fingers.
... is it fantasy?
Mommy brings Daddo a drink and sips from one she made for herself.
It’s real, Mommy says. Real as the hair on your head.
She touches my hair.
I think of the backs of Other Mommy’s arms.
Up, Mommy says.
She nods to the foot of the stairs.
Go get ready, hon, she says. I’ll meet you up there.
I head up. I hear Daddo whispering behind me. When I turn around they’re kissing.
I think of carnations as I climb the rest of the way. I think of how friends are supposed to give and take.
When I look back down, Mommy is walking out of view and Daddo is watching her walk away.
They don’t even think there might be someone other than us in the house.
That’s really good.
I don’t want her talking to Mommy or Daddo about carnations and friends. I don’t want her asking them what she
always asks me because they might say yes or they might say no and I don’t know which is the right answer.
Mommy calls out to Daddo in a loud voice and I imagine them falling in love all over again. I want them to always
feel good. I want Mommy and Daddo to hold hands all the time like they used to when we’d walk around the zoo
and even the time I saw them holding hands when we were swimming in a lake in Chowder.
That’s all I want.
For them to be like that all the time.
Bela.
Other Mommy is sitting on my bed, facing me.
Hi, I say.
I used to be so excited to see her. I used to wait for the closet doors to open.
But she scares me now. With all her talk and her question.
Can I go into your heart?
Mommy calls out from downstairs before I have time to answer.
Bela! I don’t hear you getting ready!
Make more noise! Daddo says.
They laugh down there.
But Other Mommy isn’t smiling.
She’s waiting for an answer.
No, I say.
And I run to my bathroom and close the door and grab my toothbrush.
And I make enough noise to block out the question.