Page 49 of Charlie
Maximum shook his head.
My heart went out to the boy. He was probably as confused about his parents’ relationship as I was, and maybe it had been his way of trying to wake up his mom and make her see that his dad wasn’t faithful to her. But I suspected Ciara had already known that.
“I once pranked Lumi.” River snickered and moved closer to me. “She doesn’t like it when I sleep with her in her bed, so I waited until she’d fallen asleep and then I snuck in and slept next to her.”
“You do that all the time.” Lumi gave another sigh that was worthy of a teenager. “That’s not what a prank is. A prank is like the time Nathan put salt in the sugar bowl, or when he hid all the knives from the kitchen and the adults had to search the whole house to find them.”
“But that wasn’t funny at all,” River complained. “Remember how much trouble you got in, Nathan, and you ruined the cake for all of us.”
I threw my hands up. “You people aren’t much in the line of pranksters, are you? Wanna hear some of the greatest pranks that I played on my parents?”
“I do.” Nathan put his hand down on the table and looked at me with interest.
“No, you don’t.” Lumi told him and gave me a reproachful glance, before she returned to Nathan. “Why would you lower your energy to do hurtful things when you could attract bad karma because of it?”
He scrunched his nose up. “I just wanted to hear what she did. It’s not like I was planning to copy her.”
Pushing Nathan’s book closer to him, Lumi muttered, “If you want entertainment all you have to do is read.”
I stared at her with fascination. “Wow, you really are like an old person trapped in a young body, aren’t you?”
“Lumi is a lot of fun when you get to know her,” Atlas defended his friend, but then he scratched his collarbone again. “At least she can be.”
Clearly my tactic of bonding with the kids through a bit of rebellious fun had fallen flat, so I changed tactics. “What are you all reading?”
“We’re going through the hundred greatest novels ever written. I’m readingDon Quixote.” Nathan showed me. The others showed me the titles of their books too, spanning everything from classic English literature to a book by Salman Rushdie.
When River showed me hers, I raised my brow. “Wow, you’re readingThe Land of Painted Caves? That’s a big book for a ten-year old.”
River squared her shoulders. “I’m a good reader.”
“You must be. I was a lot older before I read that one.” I looked to the door, but with no sign of Charles, I figured I could get some intel. “How do you like living here?”
Nathan’s fingers played with the pages in his book. “It’s okay. I miss Liverpool sometimes.”
“You were five when you moved here. How can you remember anything from back then?” Atlas looked skeptical and Lumi followed suit:
“You remember all the fairytales your mom told you, but she romanticized it.”
Ignoring them, I validated the boy. “I’ve never been to Liverpool, what’s it like?”
“It’s amazing. There’s a harbor and my dad used to take me to this football field and we’d play together. He was a soldier and in top shape. I’ve seen pictures of him showing off his abs.”
“Where’s your dad now?”
Nathan’s face fell and he kept playing with the book. “He died on a mission.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” I reached over and placed my hand on top of his.
“What about the rest of you. Do you like living here?”
“Yes, but I wish I had my own room,” Atlas said.
“Me too.” Nathan wrinkled his nose up. “I don’t like sharing with a girl.”
From the pout on River’s face, I could guess she was the one he shared a room with.
“What’s wrong with sharing a room with a girl?” I asked him.
