Page 63 of Safe at Home

“Make a note, Stone, to never buy her carnations,” Hayden said as he sat down in the chair by our kitchen table.

“Oh, I won’t. I’m sick of it, too,” Tyler said with a chuckle. He sat on the edge of the bed closest to me and asked if I needed anything. He had been so wonderful this whole time and always made sure I had fresh water and a basket of snacks within reach of the bed.

“So, why did you bring up the wallpaper?” Penelope asked, obviously intrigued.

There was a knock on the door, and Hayden jumped up and answered it. When the door opened, Peanut ran and hid under the bed. My brother strolled in carrying a plastic grocery bag.

“Hey, Dom,” I said and eyed the colorful paper I saw inside the bag. “What do you have there?”

Dominic laughed. “Well, Cooper and I had a brilliant idea.”

“You guys didn’t do it, did you?” Hayden asked.

“What did you do?” Tyler asked but was just shaking his head.

“I’m scared,” Pen added.

“Did you bring the tape?” Cooper asked. At Dominic’s nod, he stood up and got the tape out of the bag. They laid out different pieces of construction paper on the small kitchen table and doubled over the tape so it would stick to the wall. I tried to see what they were doing, but Tyler blocked most of my vision.

“Close your eyes,” my brother said and couldn’t hold back his laughter.

I had no clue what they were doing but closed my eyes and leaned my head against Tyler’s arm. He rubbed my back with his hand while I listened to the crinkle of paper and the laughter of our friends. Even Penelope was laughing. “She’s going to kill you.”

“Well, it’s probably a good thing she can’t get out of bed,” Cooper answered.

“Oh, man, once she is able to, you guys might be dead,” my husband said, but he was laughing as he said it.

“Can I open my eyes yet?” I asked. I was very curious and anxious to see what they had done.

“Not yet,” Cooper said. “Stone, make sure her eyes stay closed.”

“Molly, don’t forget, Pen, Ty, and I had nothing to do with this,” Hayden said. A minute after he said it, he let out a snort of laughter.

“Well, considering you’re laughing, you are now part of it,” I said.

After a few more minutes, I was finally told I could open my eyes. I slowly opened them to see construction paper covering all the flowers in the wallpaper. But on each piece of paper were sayings.

“No, you didn’t!” I cried.

“Oh, yes, they did,” Tyler answered.

I read the first sign I could see:

The next sign wasn’t a question but just a phrase.

“You guys are ridiculous!” I said, but I couldn’t help but laugh. “I actually love it!”

“I knew you would!” Dominic said with a huge grin. “Look at this one! It’s my favorite!”

“I can’t see that far. What does it say?” I asked.

“Question: How does a short person reach the top shelf? Answer: They don’t!”Dom said with a chuckle.

“That one really is true!” Tyler said and pulled me closer to him. “I’m glad you like them.”

“What does that one by you say, Pen?” I asked.

Penelope started to read it but had a hard time getting out the whole phrase because she was laughing so hard. She had to pull it off the wall and hand it to me.

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