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“Hi, is this Kennedy?”
“Sure is, mister.”
I smiled. “Cool. My name’s Peter, and I’m looking for your brother. Is he around?”
“Yep.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Okay.” There was a little clatter, and then her voice rang out shrilly. “Paul! Phone!” She breathed into the line again. “Okay, he’s coming.”
“Oh, I meant Daniel.”
There was the sound of running feet and then a struggle. “Give it to me,” a young but gruff voice demanded.
“No, it’s not for you,” Kennedy said, imperiously.
“You just said it was for me.”
“It’s not. It’s for Dan. Find Dan.”
“You find Dan.”
“No,youfind him.”
“You’re the one who answered the phone.”
I’d seen enough of Sarah and Adam’s fights to know where this was headed. Sure enough, I heard a thump, a scream, and then, “Dan, Paul hit me!”
“Dan! Kennedy’s a liar!”
The phone dropped on the floor. I rubbed my eyes, trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t think yelling at them to calm down over the phone line would be helpful.
I heard Daniel’s voice in the background. “Kennedy, go to your room now. Paul, upstairs. You have homework. You weren’t supposed to leave the kitchen until it was done.”
“But Kennedy—”
“Get your stuff from the kitchen and go to your room. Kennedy, go play with your Barbies or something. I’ll be up to put you to bed in a little while.”
“But I don’t want to go to bed.”
“Lucky for you, you’re not going to bed right now. You’re going to play with your Barbies.”
“Oh, okay. Can Paul be grounded? He hit me.”
“Your dolls are waiting.”
“It hurt.”
“Dolls. They want to play. I hear them calling you. Can you hear them?”
“No.”
“Listen!” He pitched his voice up. “‘Help us put on new outfits, Kennedy! Please! Our clothes are so last season! Please hurry!’”
I smiled, my heart wrenching. He was adorable.
“Hello?” Daniel sounded tired. I wanted to crawl through the phone line and hug him.
