Page 31 of Healing Warriors

“Together?” I asked. That seemed strange, considering they were four and had been potty trained for a couple of years now.

“You two are in here together. Let’s not start casting stones, Judas,” Alex said, severely mixing up his Bible references.

I was about to point out Alex’s faux pas but Carlie beat me to speaking. “There are about ten bathrooms in this house. Use another one,” Carlie demanded.

“Mom won’t let us go upstairs and every one on this floor is occupied. All for necessary reasons, other than you two,” Alex hissed through the door.

“And now Amos is starting to dance. If he pees on the floor out here . . . ” Alex warned, but it wasn’t necessary.

Carlie was already undoing the lock. She herded me out of the bathroom and let Amos in.

“Sorry about that, Amos,” she said to our hopping nephew as he darted into the room and slammed the door.

“What is going on with you?” Alex asked. “This isn’t about the Lius, is it?”

“Get out of here, Alex,” Carlie snapped in a hushed tone. It made me wonder how near the Lius were. Could they overhear our conversation now? And how did Alex know about this weird rivalry? Had I missed so many family dinners that I was completely out of the loop?

“Gladly,” Alex said, now that he procured the bathroom for his son.

Carlie began to drag me toward the stairs when Mrs. Russo called from the kitchen, “Are those my beautiful nieces?”

Mom and Dad only had one sibling between them and he had passed away even before I was born. So they’d adopted aunts and uncles for us along the way. The Russos, Murdocks, and Changs took their jobs the most seriously.

“Hi, Aunt Marlene,” I said as I walked toward the kitchen doorway.

“Now you’ve done it,” Carlie hissed.

What had I done?

But when I turned to look at Carlie, a bright smile was plastered to her face and I was maybe more lost than I’d ever been.

I kissed Mrs. Russo on the cheek and then went down the line of my adopted aunts, coming to my mother last.

“You wore that?” Mom said instead of a greeting.

“Just for you,” I said sweetly and Mom rolled her eyes.

“Of all the nights for you to decide to rebel,” Mom said.

I looked down the line to see my aunts shaking their heads. They were usually on my side with these things. Why were they agreeing with Mom?

“She’s still beautiful,” Mrs. Chang countered.

Thank you!

“But a little concealer and blush wouldn’t have hurt. You’ve been working too hard,” she added, making me feel a little less victorious.

“Her job is important,” Mrs. Murdock reminded the others.

“Of course. But she also needs sleep,” Mrs. Chang responded.

She wasn’t wrong.

But why did everyone care what I looked like? They’d never said anything about my appearance before, other than to praise it. I wasn’t sure I liked this side of my aunts and sister. Mom, on the other hand, had always been brutally honest.

“I was going to take her up to your room and find something,” Carlie told Mom. I was grateful she had spoken since I had no idea what to say.

“You can’t dress Ella in your mom’s clothes,” Mrs. Russo came to my rescue.

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