Chapter 42 Clarice
CLARICE
Clarice had done a little babysitting as a teenager, but it couldn’t prepare her for eight kids and a baby, compounded by the fact that most of them turned into animals when they got frustrated, tired, or bored.
Cherry and Addison quickly assembled the romp room into a makeshift day care, and the kids were all on board with the games of pretend that they suggested. The agents had brought a varied selection of toys and books, but Clarice was impressed by how little they needed to stay entertained.
Some of the parents slipped out without lengthy goodbyes in order to forestall tears, but most of them shared long hugs and kisses with the children they were leaving behind.
“It’s a Tiny Paws weekend sleepover!” most of them fibbed, leaving out the part where at least three evil agencies had teamed up to hunt them.
Becket gave Vivian a lingering kiss.
“You aren’t a cat with nine lives left,” Vivian reminded him, while Clarice tried to pretend she wasn’t there because there wasn’t a good way to get out of the kitchen to give them privacy without being obvious about it. “Be careful.”
“I have a lot left to live for,” Becket said. Then he murmured, “I love you,” and went out with Juliette to try on a bullet-proof vest.
It was considerably easier to move around when they were all gone, but not an awful lot quieter.
Darius escaped to a corner of the living room with his phone and earbuds.
Bruno and Roderick went out to do a quick walk around the neighborhood to check for anything that didn’t belong, armed with agency earpieces.
That left Clarice in the kitchen with Vivian.
“Becket’s a better baker than I am, but even mediocre cookies will go a long way towards distracting the kids. And us, too.”
Clarice helped mix the batter—there was no mixer so it had to be done by hand—and shape the cookies, then do an inventory of the supplies and plan some meals.
“We ate all the eggs and we’ll run out of bread by tonight at the rate they’re going through it,” Vivian said.
“And shredded cheese. There are some cans of things, but I’m not sure what the kids will find appealing. ”
Clarice found a wholesale-sized plastic cylinder of parmesan in the pantry, and cans of veggies and soup—but not enough of any one kind of soup to feed everyone.
A soup smorgasbord? There were a few big jars of marinara and a few packages of noodles.
“Spaghetti for lunch seems like a no-brainer. Then we could make a casserole for dinner,” she proposed.
“There’s no meat, but we have vegetables and mushroom soup for the base.
There’s fried onions we could make a crunchy topping out of. ”
“That might work if we don’t tell anyone they are onions,” Vivian agreed cheerfully.
If Becket going into the line of fire bothered her, Vivian was masking it well. Clarice was not sure she would have been so serene if Bruno was the one going, and she marveled at the fact that it had only been a few weeks that she’d even known Bruno.
And it had been less time that she’d known about magic in the world, and here she was in a safe house with a bunch of shapeshifting children.
Clarice found a sheet cake pan big enough to cook the casserole in and set aside the ingredients. There was also a wide selection of spices and Clarice mixed up a bowl to season the dish with, consulting with Vivian about what might be too spicy for young palates.
“Tara is hypersensitive to…well, everything. Shane will put anything in his mouth. I watched Franzi enjoy an entire bowl of pickled hot peppers. I’m not sure Gil tastes anything when he eats. Kids are all different!”
Bruno and Roderick returned, stomping snow off their feet.
“We’re at the end of a cul-de-sac,” Bruno reported.
“The only cars along the road have enough snow on them to suggest that they haven’t been moved lately.
I don’t think we’re being surveilled, and there’s only one way into the neighborhood. ”
He and Clarice exchanged shy looks. It was embarrassing how excited she was to see him; they hadn’t been gone more than twenty minutes. She flushed to remember the night before and wondered who had overheard them.
The cookies were cooling on the counter and Clarice and Vivian were cutting up carrots for a snack when the romp room opened and the children spilled out.
“THERE’S COOKIES!” Gil announced, as the first to arrive in the kitchen. “They smell GREAT! I’m STARVING!”
“Ooo!” Tara said, queuing to get one. “Mama, you made Doctor Becket’s cookies!”
“Not too hot!” Lucy crowed.
“I want!”
“COOKIES!”
“After your snack!” Vivian reminded them. “Cookies are dessert!”
Clarice backed into a corner and lifted the spices out of the reach of grasping hands.
How could half a dozen kids feel like so many?
They were constantly in motion. Tara went to sit primly at the dining room table, while Gil seemed compelled to start doing some form of yoga in the middle of the room.
The little girl that had turned into a wolf puppy, Gabby, was doing laps of the room on two legs. Lucy seemed to be everywhere at once.
“It smells delicious!” Cherry said, following in the sea of kids with an older baby bouncing in her arms. “There’s Mama!” The baby tried to dive out of her arms towards Vivian, babbling adorably.
Darius was drawn in by the commotion. “Is it lunchtime?” he asked hopefully, taking out his earbuds.
“It’s ten in the morning,” Clarice pointed out. “Do you want some carrots and cheese?”
Darius eyed the cookies and shrugged. “I guess.” He took a plate, added two cookies to it without asking, and disappeared back into the living room.
“Can I eat in the LIVING ROOM like DELIRIOUS?” Gil tugged on Cherry’s pants.
“You can eat at the table,” Cherry said firmly. “Let’s sit, kids!”
Even sitting was an involved exercise. Tara refused to move from the chair she’d chosen, but wanted Lucy to sit next to her, but Lucy wanted a different chair and Gil tried three before he settled on one in the corner.
Gabby and a little blonde toddler argued over one of the chairs until the blonde girl poofed into a fluffy white owl and hopped across the table to pout in the corner behind Gil.
Gil climbed down from his chair to comfort her, and sweetly offered to give her his seat as if it was a prized possession.
Clarice served the plates of snacks and poured glasses of water while Vivian sat with her baby in her lap and fed him crackers and pieces of cheese.
The kids were delighted to have grownup glasses.
They looked very small in their chairs, swinging their legs and munching on their snacks in hot anticipation of the cookie rewards.
There weren’t enough seats for all the adults, so Clarice ate standing at the counter with Roderick and Bruno. Wendy went to the living room, announcing that she intended to torment Darius by eating with him.
“I wish we had some more supplies,” Cherry observed, eating from a plate in her hands. “I was planning to do some Christmas crafts this week that would have been fun here. But I suppose it’s not worth the risk of getting the supplies from Tiny Paws.”
“Could we get a delivery?” Clarice suggested hesitantly. “We’re going to be out of milk and bread and cheese after lunch anyway. The pantry wasn’t stocked for this many people!”
“I’m going to need new diapers before tomorrow,” Addison added. “You wouldn’t guess it by his size, but this one makes a lot of messes!”
Roderick frowned. “Gabby, you have your own cheese. Eat what’s on your plate!” He opened a few cabinets. “Is this the only roll of paper towels?”
“I can’t imagine a delivery is that much of a risk,” Bruno said. “We can have it left on the porch.”
“Juliette said not to call or text,” Roderick said thoughtfully. “They might be keeping tabs on any one of us.”
“I can use my account,” Clarice suggested. “No one knew who I was. They all thought I was Veronica Chase.” She had a stab of anxiety at the reminder. Would they hurt Veronica before the agents could rescue her?
“Darius’s phone account is brand new and in his own name,” Wendy volunteered. “We could probably use it safely enough, if you can pry him off the boyband gossip forums.”
“It’s K-pop,” Darius protested from the living room. “And I’m not on gossip forums. GEEZ. It’s in airplane mode!”
While Cherry passed out cookies, they discussed the risk involved and talked about what was essential versus luxurious.
Clarice was involved in the discussion, to her surprise, and she was happy to weigh in on the contents of the pantry and possible meals.
They would be hungry in the morning if they didn’t restock, but Roderick in particular was unwilling to take the chance of discovery.
He seemed pleased that Clarice agreed with him that they could manage, even if it wouldn’t be comfortable.
The circumstances might not be ideal, but Clarice felt like she belonged somewhere, and she looked up to find Bruno smiling warmly at her.