Page 25 of Raven's Instinct
“I just meant that it’s…small.” Alan wasn’t sure he’d made anything better by adding that.
“So are we,” Kendra snapped. “For now. But I do keep feeding Amy. This isn’t a forever home, just for now. Speaking of feeding…”
Amy caught wind of Kendra’s plans and bolted for the rear of the van. Kendra swooped after her and turned the squeals of protest into laughter as she tossed her into the air. “Who wants NOODLES?”
“Oo oo OOO!”
Kendra deftly buckled her into the seat and slipped the tray down in front of her. “Gotcha!”
Amy pounded on the tray. Alan wasn’t sure if it was delight or rage, even after a week of caring for her at Tiny Paws.
Like magic, Kendra unfolded one of the counters to reveal a gas stove, which she lit. A pot was produced from a narrow overhead cabinet and filled at the miniature sink, then set to boil. Noodles were in one of the plastic bins stacked in a pet kennel.
“Can I get you something?” she offered
“I ate before I came,” Alan said.
“I have coffee and tea. Instant coffee.”
Alan had dressed considerably more sensibly for sitting outside in a frosty gravel pit and while he thought Ferdinand might fit in the back of the van, it would be very crowded and uncomfortable. A hot drinkwouldbe a nice touch tonight. “Tea sounds good. Herbal, if you’ve got it.”
“I’ve got Sleepy Time?—”
“Sweepy time!” Amy chorused.
“—and some decaf Earl Gray. I also have apple cider.”
Alan accepted a package of the Earl Gray. “Earl Gray. Hot,” he quipped, quoting Star Trek.
“I always wondered if there were people in the future who drank it cold,” Kendra said with a twitch of a smile. “Wouldn’t replicators have ordinary defaults programmed in?”
Alan was delighted that she got the geek reference. “Some drinks should be hot.” Alan took the seat beside Amy when Kendra pointed him to it, as he was otherwise standing around awkwardly in the way. Amy cooed at him and patted his arm.
“Iced coffee has always confused me.” Kendra boiled and drained the noodles efficiently, and gave Amy a divided plate with noodles, shredded cheese, and a handful of kidney beans from a Tupperware container. The little girl started eating carefully, one noodle at a time. Her own plate was a paper bowl with the same ingredients mixed together and topped with hot sauce. “Don’t judge me.”
“I kind of am judging you,” Alan confessed. “But not in the way you might think. This is amazing. I can’t believe how efficient it all is and how much you can do in this space.”
Kendra looked pleased and seemed to relax a little as she rinsed the pot, filled it with a cup of water, and set it to heat again. “It may not be a normal life, and there aren’t a lot of frills, but it suits us just fine.”
“I definitely didn’t mean to sound condescending.”
“You probably weren’t,” Kendra admitted. “I just…I’m afraid there are people who might think that living in a van wasn’tacceptablefor a single mom. That I’m putting us in danger, or something. Depriving my child of a childhood. Raising a vagrant.”
She went to the far end of the van to release the rolling stool and pushed it back to sit facing Alan and Amy, who was offering Alan a smashed handful of shredded cheese. “No thank you,” Alan said. “I have some pretend cheese.” He mimed eating it and Amy giggled.
Kendra ate gracefully, holding her plate in one hand, and when the water in the pot began to boil, she put it on the counter and manifested a cup from a cupboard he hadn’t even noticed. “Sugar?”
Alan barely kept himself from suggesting her sugar. “No, thank you.”
She showed him how to lower a hidden table at his elbow for his tea and Alan set it down to cool. Despite its size and sterility, the van felt more like home and comfort than his well-appointed townhouse, and Alan could feel his own tension ease. It was cozy, and the generator wasn’t very loud. There were periodic noises from the highway, but for the most part, it felt like they were alone and isolated in a perfect little bubble of happiness.
Nest, his raven said contentedly.
Amy kept up a commentary about her food and tried to grab for Alan’s tea when he went to drink it. Alan told stories about a diaper he’d tried to change at the day care that made Kendra try to breathe her noodles and she coughed and laughed helplessly.
She was still recovering when there was a crash at the door that rocked the van.
“Ferdinand, if you dent my van again, I’m going to double your vet bill to cover the damages!”
