The voice belongs to a tiny body, much too small for the size of the voice. The body is that of a six-year-old girl, decked out in a princess costume over jean shorts and a tank top, blue jelly sandals slapping on the steps as my niece, Elizabeth—Bets to everyone—launches herself across the driveway, between cars, and missiles toward me. When she’s a couple feet away from me, she takes a skipping couple of steps and leaps. This is normal, and expected, so I brace and catch her, stepping back and spinning her around, peppering her face with kisses until she squeals and tilts her cheek to her shoulder.
“Bets, my love!” I stop spinning and kissing, propping her bottom on my arm and tapping her nose. “Did you know I missed youat leasta million?”
“A million?” she says, derisively. “Oh please, Auntie Mike—I missedyoua thousandanda millionanda hundred.”
I widen my eyes. “Wow. That’swaymore.”
“Way.” She says this confidently. Her eyes go to Rev and she wiggles for me to set her down, which she does, and steps up into Rev’s space, staring up at him with wide, awed eyes. “Are you a giant or a ogre?”
Rev’s eyes cut to mine. Back to Bets. I just grin at him and shrug. “Uh. Ogre?”
This, clearly was the correct answer, because she squeals and claps her hands, and then yanks a Barbie pink and baby blue plastic sword from somewhere inside her dress—I thought I’d felt something hard in there—and whacks his knee with it.
“I slayed you! Now you’re dead, Ogre!”
Rev looks at me again, for guidance.
I just shrug. “She slayed you, you’re dead. Just the way of things.”
Rev turns his puzzled frown down at Bets. “Gonna take a he—heck of a lot more than that to slay this ogre, tiny princess.”
Her eyes go from merely wide to saucers. “Cool! What if I stab you?” She pokes him in the belly.
Rev’s abs are so hard the sword bends. “Been stabbed. Didn’t kill me.”
Bets seems to cotton onto the notion that he may not be kidding. “For reallyreal?”
My lungs freeze—I hadn’t considered this aspect of things, clearly.
“Coupl’a’ times.” He crouches, taps his temple. “Gonna take a head shot to do me in.”
Bets lets the sword droop into the dirt. “I ain’t allowed to hit in the head.”
Rev nods. “Probably a good rule.” He straightens to his full height again. “Have to find another way to kill me, then.”
There’s a stampede of feet on the porch, then, and a swarm of kids surrounds us, chattering all at once, all of them trying to get to their Auntie Mike first—all my nieces and nephews, all eight of them. Rev goes totally still as I crouch and do my best to hug and greet all of them at once.
Finally, the chaos of excited greetings dies down, and I move to Rev’s side. I glance up at him. “Rev, honey, these are my nieces and nephews.” I point to them in turn. “Bets you’ve met, her name is Elizabeth, but I don’t think anyone’s ever actually called her that. Hank and William are the twins, and that’s Reba with the red hair. They’re all Bets’s siblings, Ana’s kids. Connie and Brian with the black hair are Angus’s kids, and that’s John Mark and Deborah, Jordan’s kids—we call them JM and Deb.” I address the kids. “Everyone, this is Rev.”
Rev doesn’t move, and the kids all stare at him.
JM is the first to speak. “Your hair is cool.”
Rev grunts. “Thanks.”
And then, like a spooked herd of deer, they’re off as a group, screaming and shouting and laughing, beelining for the back yard, JM and Brian arguing about whose superpowers are stronger.
Rev looks at me. “Lotta kids.”
I laugh. “Yes.”
He looks around. “They all live here?”
I laugh again. “What? No, silly. They all have their own homes, but this is…ground zero, I guess. Everything happens here. Mom and Dad are always watching some or all of the kids, and everyone gathers here for meals and to watch games. The only time this house is quiet is between midnight and six in the morning. The rest of the time?” I gesture at the girls, Connie, Reba, Deb, and Bets, who are running in a pack around the side of the house for the tire swing hanging from the huge oak which dominates the whole sideyard of the house. “It’s like this.”
“Oh.” Rev seems puzzled by this but says nothing.
He glances at the house, taking it in. The screen door creaks open again, and a stream of adults emerges from the house.
