Lymber craft's Arc

Chapter 52 of 70

Ten years passed the way the feeding logs did. One page at a time, then a stack, then a drawer full she stopped opening. Lymber stood at the kitchen island of the house down the street and counted candles into a foil pan. Ten pink, ten blue. The twins turned ten today. Violetta was thirteen and upstairs in the bathroom she now called hers. Jett was eleven and setting out forks the wrong way on purpose. Paul was thirty. So was she. The number sat on the counter next to the candles and she did not pick it up. Maggie came through the side door with two bags of ice and set them in the sink. She said the bakery had spelled Missy with one S and Lymber said leave it, the kids won't care. Maggie nodded and went back out for the drinks. Lymber wiped the counter twice. The house was quiet in a way it had not been quiet in years. Four bedrooms full upstairs. Her office door at the back, still locked from last night. Missy came down first in the pink dress she had picked out on Tuesday and refused to take off since. She stood at the island and asked if she could light her own candle this year. Lymber said one, with me holding the lighter. Missy accepted the deal and climbed onto the stool to watch. Max came down behind her in a striped shirt, hair still wet, and asked where his shoes were. Lymber pointed at the mat by the door. He put them on without arguing. He was the easy one and she tried not to say it out loud. Jett walked in with the puppy, who was old now and slow, and said Violetta wouldn't come down. Lymber went upstairs. Violetta was at the mirror with a tube of mascara and red eyes that were not from crying. Lymber stood in the doorway and said the twins were waiting. Violetta said, in a minute. Lymber looked at her daughter's face in the glass and saw her own at thirteen looking back, and she stepped out of the doorway before she said anything she would have to take back. Paul came home at four with a sheet cake balanced on one hand and Polly behind him carrying two wrapped boxes. Polly kissed the twins on the tops of their heads and told Missy the dress was too much and Missy beamed. Paul set the cake down and put his hand flat on Lymber's back for a second and then moved past her to plug in the speaker. They sang. Max blew out his candles in one breath. Missy needed three tries and Lymber held her hair back. Violetta came down halfway through and stood at the edge of the counter and clapped without smiling. Lymber cut the cake and passed plates and counted heads without meaning to. Six. Her family was six now, and it had been six for ten years, and the counting was a habit she could not put down.