A Tribe United Again

Chapter 3

Mal held Marcy's hand as they walked around the furniture store. They were writing down everything they wanted while people shopping recognized them and took pictures. "What about this refrigerator?"

"It's not big enough." Marcy was looking for a large enough refrigerator so they could get two and wouldn't have to worry with all the people in their family. As it was, Joe had to go shopping every day just to keep it filled.

He pointed to a black one. "What about this refrigerator?"

She brightened. It went with her red and black kitchen! "Let me see." She let him go to open the double doors at the top and saw it was indeed spacious. She opened the two drawers at the bottom to see they were freezers. "Yes!"

He beamed at picking something she wanted. "So we have fridges. What else for the kitchen?"

"Nothing here." She wrote down the serial number and put an "x2" by it. "So we need to do the ballroom next and that'll be it."

He took her hand again, exhausted. They'd only been there an hour but she walked at a brisk clip, finding things. "What do we need for the ballroom?"

"Tables and chairs and tables for food."

"Tables for food?"

She tugged him to the kitchen tables. "Yeah. Long tables for food to be put on."

"Why don't we just get sideboards?"

"I'm not paying all that money for sideboards when simple tables are fine enough!"

"Baby." He almost laughed. "We live in a castle."

"I don't care. We have six kids to spend money on."

He bobbed his head, conceding the point. "What kind of tables then?"

"Long, rectangle tables in an inoffensive color because they're just going to be covered in cloth tablecloths anyway."

He could admit that did sound classy. "Why do we have a ballroom anyway?"

"To host parties."

He smiled. "You want to host parties?"

She let him go to look at a large, circular, white, wooden table with gold scroll legs. It sat eight. "Yes. Specially a Valentine's Day party."

He could be knocked over with a feather. "You hate Valentine's Day."

"You don't."

His heart filled with love for her. "I think this is a great table."

She beamed. "We're getting 16."

ATUA

"Whales!" Mickey cried.

Maddie held her on her hip and felt like crying, too. She continued to search the pantry but couldn't find the cheese crackers anywhere. "I don't see any Whales, Mickey."

Mickey cried harder.

Suddenly there was a crash and more crying.

Maddie turned and left the large room to find Mally had pushed a glass jar from the counter and it broke on the floor, scaring Riley.

"Oops." Mally grimaced.

"Mally?!" Maddie was rattled.

Lisa skipped in then stopped when she saw the mess. "Ooh!"

Maddie felt so overwhelmed even though she'd specifically asked to take care of the oldest three by herself. "Go away, Lisa!"

"I'm telling!"