“What? How? I mean …”
“My mother. She wouldn’t let any of us do it. You know she actually paid someone to come in and put it up, so all of the decorations were lined up and matched perfectly. Me and my sister tried to do it once. She got so mad. Started shouting at us for making a mess and how she didn’t want her tree looking like kids had done it.”
“Well that’s the point, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Tell that to my mother. We can have a real tree? You’re not teasing me? We can decorate it?”
“Decorate it any way you like. So? What do you say? I go to this meeting. You get a bath, and I’ll pick you up after? We’ll go out, grab some lunch …”
It sounded wonderful. Even with the black cloud they had hanging over them. “You know I’m going to have to face my parents.”
“Yeah. We’ll deal with them, Rosie. Whatever they have in store, we’ll deal with all of it.”