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Chapter Three: Part 1

 

Chapter Three

Shop Life

            Her parents were ecstatic when she told them the news.

            “There’s a suite that comes with it?” her mother cried. ‘Wow! You really hit the jack pot, honey!”

            “It does seem like good timing.” Her father put his newspaper down on the kitchen table where they had gathered to hear the news. “I mean…considering what…well, you know…” he stumbled to a halt, eyeing her awkwardly.

            “It’s okay Dad, I know what you meant to say.” Alice smiled at him and he looked relieved. “It’s a perfect fresh start.”

Her mother suddenly grabbed her in a bear hug and Alice’s breath left her in a whoosh. “I’m so excited for you! You must be so happy!”

            “Ow…okay, thanks Mom.” She laughed as she tried to untangle herself from her mother’s enthusiastic embrace.

            “You do look rather….alive,” her father noted.  “I think this will be good for you.”

            “I hope you’re right. Help me pack?”

            “Okay,” he grumbled good-naturedly, heading for the stairs. “Let me go find those suitcases. I think they’re packed somewhere down in the basement…” His voice trailed off as he descended the stair case.

            “What does your suite look like?” her mother asked excitedly.

            “Oh,” Alice’s eyes widened, “I didn’t even ask to see it. Azura was showing me the store. I was so excited about that I didn’t even ask anything about the suite.”

             “The vacuums are pretty exciting, huh?”

            Alice couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah, the…vacuums. Very exciting.”  If only her mother knew. It was strange that she couldn’t tell them. She was fairly bursting with excitement. For a split second she was tempted to disobey Azura’s instructions and tell her parents everything, but the impulse faded as quickly as it came. They would think she’d gone nuts.

            “I think you’ve just inherited the most boring store on earth, honey,” her mother teased.

            “Oh Mom, you have no idea.”  Her mother laughed again and Alice laughed with her because her mother really didn’t have any idea and it struck her as funny. And if her laugh had a slightly hysterical edge to it, well, her mother didn’t seem to notice.

            Her father’s head appeared over the top of the stair rail. “Found the suitcases. How many do you think you need?”

            “Um…about three,” Alice said. “I don’t have my desk anymore…”

            Her parents must have noticed the look on her face, because her mother started chirping away cheerily about her new “situation” and her father beat a hasty retreat down the stairs. Alice couldn’t help being angry that her desk was over at Jason’s house, since he had offered to paint it for her. It had been a putrid yellow-orange colour and he had joked that she couldn’t study to be an English teacher with a hideous desk. Now she had no desk at all; she wasn’t about to go over there and get it from him.  It didn’t matter anymore. She didn’t need it.  Alice went to retrieve the suitcases, trying to ignore her mother’s constant flow of excited chatter.