Mimi's Demons

Chapter 118: A New Home

Mimi stood on the sidewalk leading into a culvasac of three beautiful and barely modest homes. She looked behind her at the equally nice neighborhood, trademark scowl on her face.

"Papa," she said. "What is this?"

He closed the door of a familiar unassuming black sedan behind him.

"Our new home."

"Which one?"

"Which one do you want?"

She whirled on him, all big eyes and open mouth.

"What?"

"Well, we haven't finalized who's having who, so whichever one you don't pick Cromwell and Omen will take—"

"That's not—Papa! Where are you getting this money?"

"Didn't I tell you about Monty?"

Her face squirmed, nose wrinkling up and down. It was adorable.

"You said we'd get a small house," she said. "This is going to catch attention."

"I don't know what houses you've been living in, but this is considered smack dab in the middle of an average income for an American citizen."

"Wha?" She looked back at the three houses around the circle of asphalt. There wasn't even a crack in the street let alone the sidewalk, despite the trees being large. Every neighborhood she'd been too with trees like that had sidewalks all over the place because of roots, and she'd spent many a summer day picking at tar from cracks in the asphalt.

She looked back at her Papa, fists on her hips. "This is rich stuff."

"Americans are rich."

"Papa, we are not rich people. You said so."

"It's all relative." He leaned to the side, putting a hand to his pocket. "So? Pick. Blue, yellow, or white."

"How are we going to clean up all that space!"

"With are hands?"

"Ugh!" she ran her hands down her face. "Fine. Which one's the smallest?"

"Hmm, I'd say the yellow one? It has one less room?"

"One less room? How many rooms does it have?"

"Four."

"Four! What are we even doing with the last two?"

"Office and a workout space. You still need space to practice crushing men's skulls between your thighs, don't you?"

Mimi decided to give up at this point and just try to be grateful. She'd figured he'd learn his lesson once he realized he had to vacuum and dust the whole place or clean multiple bathrooms. It wasn't like Serena was living with them anymore.

Turns out she was wrong in part. While Serena wasn't living with them, she still came over to help clean and generally boss her around about taking care of her face and hair. Kavya still came over too, this time with a little baby strapped to her chest which she let Mimi hold while she cooked Mimi's favorite foods.

Mimi didn't exactly have good memories of babies. Her little brother had cried most of the time and demanded all the attention from her parents. But Kavya's little baby rarely cried. She gave lots of big, gummy smiles, and even giggled when Mimi would make faces. And while Kavya gave her baby, little Laila, lots of attention, she still treated Mimi the same way she did before, even hugging and kissing her and helping her wash her hair.

The same was true for Omen, who still gave her martial arts lessons and even occasionally took her out for ice cream.

"It's almost like we're a real family," she'd said one day to Juli, who'd now become her neighbor and real friend, though he still insisted on being the trusty right-hand man. Mimi worried about him sometimes.