Tay dashes for it and picks it up. Zac rolls his eyes and puts down his drumsticks, and Ike slowly retires his guitar.
Tay watches, talking to Sara. Mom yells for Ike downstairs and Zac runs after Jessie, who was standing in the doorway when the phone rang. I sat behind
Zac's drums, tempted to beat them just to piss him off.
He walks around in slow circles, concentrating on the conversation. I wonder if he even knows I'm here. He's talking about nothing at all, laughing and then shaking his head. I stare out the window, my thoughts all drift into space, catching pieces of his side of the conversation. His voice changes, the way everyone's does when they're about to say good-bye.
"Yeah, Sara, okay. Sure. Love you," I cringe when he says that, "bye, Sara."
He hangs up and starts walk away when I stand up. He jumps. He didn't know I was there.
He smiles a soft, tired smile, but looks a little irritated that I listened to the conversation. He turns off the light. We walk into the hallway. Downstairs on the couch we can hear Mrs. Hanson read a bedtime story to the four youngest, and maybe even Zac and Ike. Tay says goodnight to his mother and heads up the stairs again.
"Goodnight, Taylor," I call after him.
"'Night, Mel. See you in the morning," he turns and looks back at me, then walks, well, drags himself, up the stairs.

All the other family members except Dad run up the stairs around me, laughing and yawning. They stampede to their bedrooms, and Mom tucks every body in. I turn and head to my room. Mr. Hanson is talking to their Uncle A.J. about the garage they're building. A.J.'s only 31, and he got married three years ago. He's a cool guy. They say goodnight and Dad heads into the living room.
"'Night, Dad #2," I yawn, opening the basement door.
"Goodnight, Daughter #...," he counts on his fingers, smiling, "four."
I walk down the stairs and fall asleep to the sound of Tay's voice on the last album.

The sun shines in the two small above-ground windows in my room. I wake up slowly, blinking and stretching. Suddenly there's feet pounding down the stairs. Tay pokes his head in. "You're awake," he smiles. He thinks my sleeping habits are strange, and I guess they are. If they let me, I'll sleep until noon and stay up until midnight. "Now get up, we got places to go, and things to do," he grins, "and people to piss off."
I look at him and yawn, "I'll be up in a minute." I give him a sleepy look, "save me some breakfast."
He laughs. He walks out and I can hear him run up the stairs. I hear someone else run down. Jessie runs in.
"Come on! Come on!" she says impatiently. "We have to go soon!"
Go? Go where? I stand up sleepily and shut the door after Jess runs out. I change, trying to remember what it was we're doing today. Boating. We were planning to go out in their Uncle A.J.'s boat on the lake today.

I run upstairs and into the kitchen. Zac and Jessie are eating at the table, Ike is throwing his bowl in the sink, Tay is eating at the counter, while reading. Mackie, Avie, and Mr. and Mrs. Hanson are running in and out of the kitchen.
I sit down and pour a bowl of Cheerios. "Can I have the milk, please?" I ask.
Tay pulls himself away from his magazine and sets the milk carton in front of me. I pour the milk into my bowl and eat, quickly.
Mrs. Hanson looks up and smiles, "Hey, Molly, can you help Ike grab the cooler, please?"
I stand up, "sure."
Ike and I lug the cooler from the garage to the back of the van and swing it into the trunk. He grabs the life jackets from the shelves and Walker hands me the fishing poles. I stash them in the back an walk into the kitchen to finish eating.
Diana is washing the dishes in the sink, Taylor is in the seat next to mine, still reading. His mother must have told him to sit down.
I finish my bowl of cereal, rise the bowl and stick it in the dish washer. Taylor reluctantly gets up and walks to the doorway, reading as he walks.
Ike passes him, "what's so interesting?'
"Huh?" Tay says, looking up, "oh, it's a music thing, I'm reading about the new album releases."
Ike nods, and walks into the living room. I follow Taylor out to the car. Avie and Mackie have their books and toys, Jessie walks out with a pad and colored pencils.
I have my book, The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton, in my back pack in the car, along with my lyrics notebook and camera.

We cram into the car, and wait for Mr. Hanson. Diana climbs in, and Walker takes the driver's seat, and starts the car. We turn onto the road and Dad turns up the stereo. I sit between Taylor and the window, on the other side of him is Zac.
After about half an hour of solid reading, we pull up to A.J.'s house on the edge of Lake Cooley. He greets us with the wave of a fishing pole. We pile out, leaving everything but the picnic basket, life jackets, and fishing poles.