Page 78 of King’s Kismet

“I was probably cold,” I remarked.

“Not traumatized?” he teased, making his counter-move. “I think I would have been traumatized.”

“That too,” I agreed. “But only third... After being hungry.”

Rig huffed. “So you do remember?”

“Not a blink of it.”

“I don’t remember being a baby either.”

I grinned at him, snatching a white piece from the board. “Because you weren’t.”

“Probably,” the angel said with a shrug.

“Are you two going to go round and round with evasive answers all day?” Sam asked, massaging his temples.

“Probably,” Rig repeated as I said, “Most likely.”

Papi sighed. “It’s exhausting. You know that, right?”

“Lucy taught her,” Rig pointed out.

I nodded. “This is true.”

“I can’t handle two of them,” Amelia playfully complained. “Much less three. We’ll never get a straight answer without solving a riddle, riding a camel into town, and killing a neighbor first.”

“What?” I asked, trying to contain my laughter.

Rig groaned as if she’d sparked an old memory. “It was a joke.”

“I rode a fucking camel into town and killed a man,” she whisper-shouted. “It wasn’t a joke.”

“It was a joke,” Sam informed me. “Not a good one, but one nonetheless.”

“I told them not to do it.” Nate glared at them. “I had to clean it up.”

Amelia scoffed. “I didn’t make a mess.”

Charlie dropped to the sofa, chortling with Papi. “He means the camel shit.”

“It’s still not funny,” Nate argued.

“You’re so childish,” Amelia chastised, swatting at them with her dish towel.

“It wasn’t my idea,” Nate defended.

“You didn’t stop me,” she pointed out. “And why was it that you were stuck cleaning camel dung? Remind me again?”

He scowled at his co-mates as he muttered, “I said you wouldn’t do it.”

“What was that?” She cupped her left ear. “I don’t think I heard you.”

“I said you wouldn’t do it.” He pried his eyes up to meet hers, unimpressed that the conversation was keeping him from his book. “And they said if you did, I had to clean up after the camel.”

“Men,” she murmured, grinning at them. “Perpetual children.”

“Why did you do it?” I asked her curiously.