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She shakes beside me, and it’s a punch in the gut to realize that she thinks she’s gotten me in trouble, and worse, that she senses a threat from Henry.
As if he realizes this too, he drops his arms and takes a quick step back, but I can’t deal with him right now. I draw her against me. “It’s okay, Evie. I really can fix it. And you can help me. Would that make you feel better?” She nods, her head pressed against my chest. “I like that you want to fix your mistakes. It makes me proud of you. Now, why don’t you go unplug the cord from Mr. Henry’s house to start?”
She sniffs, gives me a tight squeeze, then slips around me on the side opposite from Henry and scurries over to unplug the lights. Nothing happens, of course. I’ll have to flip the breakers.
I turn to stare at Henry, hoping he can see the fury in my eyes even in the dark.
“I wasn’t yelling,” he says, sounding defensive.
“Evie has spent most of her time around my brother and her grandfather. They’re both patient men.” Just let him say one word about them needing to be stricter.Try me, Scrooge.
He clears his throat. “I didn’t mean to scare her.”
“Then what were you trying to do? Scare me?”
He shakes his head. “No, I—”
“Forget it,” I say. “Bottom line is that we blew your fuses. Your breaker box is probably in your utility room. I need to check it. Do you mind?”
“No.”
I start toward the back of his house. “Evie, go sit on the back steps and wait for me. I’ll get our lights on in a minute.”
“Actually,” he calls, “could you show me how to do it? I probably need to know. I’ve never had to do it before.” I pause, and he clears his throat. “And Evie, I’m sorry I scared you. I’m grouchy sometimes, but I’m not mean.”
There’s a long silence. “Okay,” she says cautiously.
“Do you know how to do this?” he asks. “This breaker your mom is talking about?”
She shakes her head and says a soft, “No.”
“I promise not to be scary if you want to come learn how to do it too.”
He sounds awkward, like he’s not used to talking to kids, but he’s said exactly the right thing—if I were in a forgiving mood.
I hold out my hand to Evie. “What do you think, kiddo? Would you like to learn? I can show you on ours after I fix Mr. Henry’s.”
She walks over and takes my hand, nodding. I lead her to our back stoop and give her my phone, turning on the flashlight. “Will you be okay waiting here for me? It’ll be less than five minutes and you’ll be able to hear me the whole time.”
She hesitates. Henry has followed us up the driveway, staying on his property as I settle Evie down.
“Go ahead and show her how to do yours first. I can wait.” His voice is quiet.
Evie’s eyes widen a tiny bit; this is definitely her preferred course of action. I give Henry half a brownie point for the offer. “Sounds good,” I say. “Why don’t you see if your breaker box is in the utility room? It’ll be in the wall and look kind of like a switchboard.”
He doesn’t answer but I hear his footsteps move farther up his driveway.
I let Evie guide us into the house with my phone light then show her the breaker box against the wall of the small hall closet where the washer and dryer will go someday. We’ll be doing laundry at the Dubs for a long time unless something amazing comes up for sale on Craigslist.
“See how some of these switches are flipped one way and some are flipped the other? They should all be that way, which means they’re on.” I flip one to show her. “You want to try?”
She nods and flips the rest, smiling as lights come on behind us and down the hall.
“Good job, Ev. Now why don’t you put your pajamas on while I help Mr. Henry, then we’ll watch a movie when I come back?”
“Okay, Mama.” She whirls in the direction of her bedroom. “Sorry again that I broke everything.”
“It’s okay. We can talk tomorrow about what you learned from this, but for tonight, we’ll fix the problem and then relax. Deal?”
