Blood Relatives

It was a gray day of drear.
“Can you convince Mom to start the fire?” Linnea asked, hopping out to the car that morning to carry in the bundled Puck. “Just go in there and say, ‘Wow – it doesn’t feel any different in here than from outside.’”
But Mom was not convinced to start a fire, because the afternoon was supposed to be warmer. It wasn’t.
While Collette waited for Frances to be ready for his mathematics lesson, she and Puck joined Carrie at the library. Puck carried two DVDs inside to return, then promptly tripped on the carpet, sprawling headlong into the floor. After a loud cry, he recovered, and ran over to the glass door to watch other babies in a class. He rattled the door handle, trying to get inside, but Collette distracted him with books.
Carrie prepared parmesan chicken and biscuits for lunch that day, talking about how she looked forward to having her own place – decorating it with a panorama of very 50’s collections, including Elvis and Dr. Who.
Collette, Carrie, and Puck picked up Rose from work. She had a large bag full of Olga’s fair for their dinner. It was movie night for the girls at home.
While they waited for OLeif to return from work, Carrie tried to scratch around the ring in her ear, which seemed to bleed more often that not.
“Hey, you got blood on my arm!” Rose exclaimed in protest.
“Now we’re blood relatives, Rose.”
“We already are.”
“The police dropped you off.”
“You said it was the aliens. You keep changing your story.”