Re-Arranged

Chapter Twenty Six

"The etiquette dictates that one ought to knock before entering someone's sleeping quarters."

Ben's pronouncement would have had more impact – and would have been heard better – if his young sisters had not rushed towards the intruder with a unified, gleeful greeting of "Aunty, aunty!"

"Oh, you guys are spritely as always. When did you learn to say 'aunty'?" Kelly asked as she tried to inch forward while Maisley and Paige played dead weights hanging from each of her wrists. "Wow, you guys are heavy as a unit!" She could not say the words without a grunt intruding.

She tried to bargain them off of her, and they did not let go until she promised to get them chocolates without their mother knowing. Ben let out a scoff at the claim and said bluntly to his sisters, "Please, I'll tell mom you guys struck this deal with Aunt Kelly."

The twins shot him imaginary lasers from their eyes and palms to which he stuck his tongue out. They flicked their hair diva-style and turned their backs to him, returning to the conference they had created with the soft toys.

"Do they even know what striking a deal means?"

Much like his sisters did with him, Ben repeated the action with his aunt.

Kelly tried again. "Rhys isn't here?" But she ended up answering it herself. "Ah, right. I saw the crib in the living room." She smacked her lips and swung back and forth on her heels. It hit her then what she had to do.

Ben watched his aunt from the corner of his eyes as she cleared her throat. Oh please, nothing you say will persuade me –

"Some," Kelly began to recite from memory, her hands extended as if hailing a deity with her speech, "do possess the clarity that I can relate to."

Ben felt the colour creep up from his neck before he could identify embarrassment as an emotion taking over his senses. His aunt acted like she noticed no change in his countenance even as if swung his head round to face her.

"They even render me –"

"Stop! I give up!"

"– speechless from time to time –"

"NO! For the love of –"

"– which, if you knew me you would know –"

"– all things sour, don't continue!"

"– is a thing hardest to achieve –"

"Why? Why, why?!"

"–while I am on a roll."

"Mrs. Kelly Sloane Summers! Stop quoting from my discarded essay!" Ben had jumped to his feet and his face was flushed beyond beetroot red when he yelled out her name with the honorific attached.

Kelly beamed at him for a second before grinning in a full-fledged manner. "There's my little buddy back!" A beat later, she added, "I'm sorry for mixing up the dates. I was just buying myself more time."

"For what? My school interview? I did not think that affected you as much, or anyone for that matter." Ben pulled up one of the kiddie chairs for his aunt and one for himself.

"No. I have something to attend tomorrow which I'd rather not, so I sort of wrote that off as a week away and I shifted your interview along with it. But we can get to that later. Tell me what happened at school!"

"Nothing interesting. Really. The school hasn't changed much, by the way. It's like travelling back in time."

"Yeah. I went to see Kay there not too long ago, it's the same as always."