Lily

The Knock

     "Lily."

     The strange word hangs in the air for a while. I wonder what it means. After a while, I sit up in my bed, placing both of my feet on the floor. Thank God. I sigh with relief when I feel the coldness of the wood floor in my room under my feet. I push myself up off my bed. I pretty much hated my new room, because it was so small. It was square-shaped, with white walls and a decent-sized fancy window above my twin bed. It also had a small walk-in closet on the right wall, a tiny desk on the left wall which I guessed was for writing letters, a tiny bookcase at the foot of my bed, which was pushed up against the left wall and touching the back wall with its side, and a pot of beautiful purple passion flowers in the corner of the right wall, which I had guessed Clifford put there as a complimentary gift with buying the house. 

     I walk over to my door and turn the knob, opening it. I peek out into the hallway, and then walk over and glance into the living area. Gale is sitting on the same linen green couch he was sitting in two days ago, when we first bought the house. I looks over as I come in and smiles.

     "Hey, morning," he says in his cheery morning voice. For once, I actually feel kind of glad to see him.

     "Hey," I smile back. I hear footsteps behind me, and I turn around to see my mom come in, rubbing her eyes, still in her pajamas.

     "Hey, guys," she says. I bite my lip, counting down the seconds until... "What do you guys want for breakfast?" Yep, there it is. I was correct, as always. My mom's first question of the morning is always that annoying phrase, "What do you want for breakfast?" I don't know why, but it always gets on my nerves when she asks that, I guess because she asks it even if she woke up, like, five minutes ago.

     "I don't know, we woke up like ten minutes ago; do we really have to decide right now?" I replied, yawning.

     "Well, I'm hungry," Gale said. He pushed himself off the sofa.

     "Hey, so I think today, we should try eating in here," my mom suggested. If it meant not having to go into the kitchen, then I was all for it.

     "Yeah, that sounds good," I said, nodding sleepily. "I'm gonna go wake up Tommy real quick." As I walked down the hall to his room, I could swear I heard footsteps behind me. I looked behind me, and my mom was following me.

     "I want to see him, too," she explained. I guess my perplexity was showing through. I sighed, a little annoyed.

     When we got to his door, I reached for the knob and tried to turn it. It wouldn't go. I frowned, and retried. It still wouldn't budge.

     "Tommy?" I called in. I knocked. "Tommy, it's Calia. Are you okay?" Then I heard footsteps, and the sound of a lock clicking. Then the door opened. When he saw me, Tommy ran out and hugged me.

     "Hey," I said. "Hey. You okay?"

     "I thought you were dead," he replied, his voice muffled in my flannel pajama top. I exchanged looks with my mom.

     "What? Why would you think that?" I asked, mostly perplexed and partly worried.

     "Huh? What did I say? Never mind," he suddenly took it all back. "I don't know why, just some silly idea. Don't mind me and my big mouth." I suddenly became very worried.

     "'Big mouth'?" I exclaimed. His fake-looking smile faded, as if he was thinking something like oops.

     "No, no, I meant careless mouth," he corrected himself. "What? No, I'm sorry, I meant silly mouth, that makes stuff up all the time. Anyway, what's for breakfast?" He was acting very strange. I exchanged looks with my mom once again, and then shrugged. Whatever. Let Tommy be his own thing. My mom smiled back at him, and replied, "It's a surprise."