“Now? It’s almost dark.” Amelia ran to the window. “I don’t see her. Which way was she going?”
“That way.” Roshni pointed to the end of the street. “She was going fast.”
“Then she’ll be coming back. Come on!” Amelia grabbed the baby coupons, which she had left beside the phone, and ran to the front door.
When she and Roshni got to the street, they heard screaming before they saw the stroller.
“God! Someone’s being murdered,” Roshni said.
“Let me do the talking,” Amelia said as the woman and the stroller came into sight.
The woman was hunched over the stroller, her long hair hanging like a curtain over her face, and she let out a scream too when Amelia shouted, “Hi!”
“Sorry,” the woman said, pushing her hair behind her ears. “I didn’t see you standing there. It’s getting kinda dark.”
Amelia walked over and peered into the stroller at three round scarlet faces. The babies stopped screaming and stared at her with surprised looks.
“Are they teething?” she said.
“Yeah.” The woman sighed. “Usually I stick them on top of the washing machine and the vibration makes them go to sleep, but tonight nothing is working.”
“That’s harsh,” Roshni said.
“You’re telling me.”
“I’m Amelia,” Amelia said. “I live in that house. And this is my friend Roshni.”
“Strawberry,” the woman said. “I know—weird name. It’s because of my strawberry-blond hair.”
Amelia thought Strawberry’s hair was more like dirty blond. It looked greasy, as if she hadn’t had time to wash it. There were black circles under Strawberry’s eyes. Up close, she looked pretty young, almost like she could still be a teenager.
“Have you got a sec?” Amelia said.
When she was finished her story, Strawberry gazed at Amelia’s house and said, “All those snakes and things are in there?”
“Yeah, but they won’t hurt anyone.”
“I don’t know. Coupons? It just sounds like a lot of work.”
“You could use the savings to pay for a babysitter,” Roshni said.
“I don’t know. I guess.” Strawberry sighed. “I could try. But I’m not promising anything.”
“Thanks,” Amelia said. “And if you like these, I can get you lots more.”
She and Roshni watched Strawberry push the stroller up the street.
“I’m never having kids,” Roshni said.
“Me neither.”
“And hey, how did you know about teething?”
Amelia sighed. “Dad.”
The next night, Gabriella invited Amelia and Diane for crepes. It was the first time Diane had been back to the apartment, and she looked surprised when she walked into the kitchen. Gabriella must have been cleaning for hours, Amelia thought. The counters were cleared off except for a large bowl of batter, and there were no dishes stacked in the sink.
“Please, sit down,” Gabriella said. “We will eat very soon.”
“Let me help instead,” Diane said. “I actually own a crepe pan, but I’ve never attempted to make them.”
“Then I will give you a lesson!” Gabriella said.
Amelia watched for a few minutes. It didn’t look that hard. You just had to swirl the batter in the pan—and not put too much in—then flip the crepe over when it started to bubble. Crepes were just very skinny pancakes.
She thought her mother was overreacting when she took her first crepe out of the pan and shrieked, “I can’t believe I did that!”
Gabriella declared, “Parfait!” and added it to a growing stack on a plate.
Amelia went into the living room. She said hi to Duke, who was on his laptop, and then wandered into the reptile room to check on Winston, who was sleeping.
“We are ready!” Gabriella cried.
They all crowded around the little table in the kitchen. Gabriella set a plate of crepes in the middle.
“Bon appétit!”
The best part about these crepes was the filling. Thick, rich chocolate sauce, sliced bananas and mounds of whipped cream, all rolled up inside the crepe. It was like having dessert for your main course. They were almost finished when Gabriella’s phone rang.
“Yes,” she said. “I am the one who called…July 23… Yes…Oh…Well, that is too bad, but we are definitely still interested…How about tomorrow night, if we can get a ride?”
“What’s too bad?” Duke said when Gabriella put down her phone.
“The apartment on Craigslist. The one in Port Moody? It only has one bedroom.”
Amelia had trouble swallowing. Diane put her fork down and stared at Gabriella. “How would you manage with one bedroom?” she said.
“We will give it to the reptiles. Duke and I will sleep on a couch in the living room, and we will keep our clothes in boxes.”
“That’s just ridiculous.”
“We have done it before. Right, Duke? That place we had before with the—what do you call it?”
“Mildew,” Duke mumbled through a mouthful of crepe.
Diane shuddered. “What happened with the house in Langley? Jeannie’s niece’s house?”
Gabriella looked blank.
“It’s a long story,” Amelia said. “I’ll tell you later, Mom. Why don’t you have the last crepe?”
Port Moody? That was as far away as Langley. She shoved her plate away. She couldn’t eat another bite.
“Turtle Wax,” Amelia said. “I’m not kidding. That’s what it says.”
“Let me see.” Gabriella leaned over her shoulder. “Buy one, get two free. That is a very good deal.”
“Romeo and Juliet!” Amelia said. “I bet it would make their shells all shiny.”
“But why do turtles want shiny shells?” Gabriella mused. “Ask Duke. If he says it is a good idea, we will print it.”
Duke was outside, mowing the lawn. “Turtle Wax is for polishing cars,” he said with a huge grin.
“It is?”
“Yup. Last time I looked, Romeo and Juliet didn’t have any chrome.”
“Not funny,” Amelia said.
“I must be crazy. That guy hates me,” Liam said.
Roshni poked his arm. “Shut up and keep walking.”
“Maybe he’ll be outside polishing his car,” Amelia said. “That’ll make it easier.”
But he wasn’t. They walked cautiously around the gleaming Mustang and up to the front door of the house. Amelia rang the bell.
A woman in a pink housecoat opened the door.
“Uh, we wanted to talk to the owner of the red car,” Amelia said.
The woman turned around and hollered, “Mick! Haul yourself outta bed! Someone to see you!”
She disappeared, and after what seemed like ages Mick appeared, yawning and wearing a pair of pyjama bottoms and a T-shirt.
He stared at them, and his face darkened. “Yeah?”
“I’m Amelia, and this is Liam and Roshni.”
“So?”
“Not going well,” Liam whispered.
Amelia glared at him and then launched into her story, which was punctuated by Mick’s yawns.
“You got me outta bed for this?” he said when she stopped to take a breath. “A bunch of lizards and rats and a dumb tortoise? You must be crazy.”
“That’s what I said,” Liam chipped in. “Crazy. Coming here, I mean…”
Mick gave him a penetrating look. Then he said, “Tell me again. What’s in it for me?”
“Free Turtle Wax,” Roshni said. “With only a small fee going to Duke’s Den.”
“Let me see.” Mick grabbed the coupon from Amelia and squinted at it. “Yeah, okay, I’ll do it.”
“Great!” Amelia said. “Can I come back tomorrow for the money?”
“What’s the big hurry? Come back in a few days. And not so early. I like to sleep in.”
He turned to Liam. “And you, punk, don’t even think—”
“Of breathing on your car,” Liam finished.
“You got that right.”