Page 2 of An Investigator For Ivy

“I’ll stay in with the dinner,” she said. Anything was better than folding stiff laundry that was drying outside.

She started to slice the vegetables. Things she didn’t even know the names of. Her mother tried hard to keep the meals simple for them. She didn’t want to think she was fussy, but she just wanted somethingnormalfor once.

Like the ice cream she’d gotten when they visited her grandparents in Texas a few years ago. They’d stayed a month and she didn’t want to leave.

She’d been told no, she had to go. Her parents wanted them together.

She supposed it was better being with her siblings than being alone.

Only the day was here when she was alone.

Twenty minutes went by while her mother was dealing with the laundry. All those modern amenities that other sixteen-year-olds had in America were things she didn’t have here.

She had a limited wardrobe. Enough to pack in two bags when it was time to relocate. Not a lot of possessions either. Laptops weren’t things that were common in the village they were living in. Nor the internet. What they got was a satellite and not used often. Normally when her father was working and that was it.

“Do you need help?”

She turned to see Chase walk into the kitchen. “Yes. But as you can see I’m almost done. You always come in when I’m done.”

Chase grinned at her. “I don’t plan it that way.”

She could tell by the look on his face, he did. “Where is Dad?”

“Taking a shower,” Chase said. “He’ll be out soon. It was so cool what he was showing me just now.”

She ground her teeth. “What was that?”

“He said a kid came in today with three broken fingers and he showed me how he fixed and set them. I can’t wait to do all this myself.”

“Do you really want to go into medicine or just want to spend time with Dad?”

Chase laughed and picked up a slice of fruit that she’d been cutting. She didn’t know the name of that either, but it was sweet.

“I want to learn,” Chase said. “Maybe if you read more than you pouted you wouldn’t be so bored all the time.”

She felt the tears come back into her eyes. Everyone told her she was high maintenance, overly sensitive and needed attention.

She didn’t think she did, but she didn’t like to be alone either.

“That isn’t nice to say, Chase,” her father said, coming into the room.

Ivy turned and smiled. She missed her father and was happy he came to her defense.

She put the knife down and went to him to get a hug. “Hi, Daddy.”

It probably sounded childish for her to address her father like this at her age, but it was what came out of her mouth.

Her father gave her a one-armed hug. “Are you behaving?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she said, sighing. She wasn’t five, but her father always treated her as such. “I’m helping with dinner like Mom asked me to do.”

“Good girl,” her father said and moved away.

There was a solid minute of silence while he sat at the table and was on his computer. He didn’t have much of an office space here. Most of the places they lived in had two to three bedrooms if that. She was lucky to have her own room for the first time in her life now. But that meant her father had to give up the room he would have used as an office to Chase.

Maybe she shouldn’t have thrown such a fit about having to share with him with their age difference, but it wasn’t fair. She’d been sharing with her sisters for years while Chase got his own room.

Her father had given in and said he’d do his work at the table.

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