EPILOGUE
LIAM
Christmas morning, two years later
I wake up before the sun because my toes feel fizzy. Not the bad kind of fizzy, the good kind, the kind that says get up, there are secrets downstairs. The hallway is cold and I like how the wood feels on my feet. My pajamas have dragons on the sleeves. They look like they are flying when I run.
The big tree is lit already. I think it sleeps with its eyes open. The fire makes a sound like someone clapping softly. I can smell bread and cinnamon, and also the dog. He is under the table pretending to be a rug. He is not very good at it because his tail thumps when he dreams.
Mam and Da are on the couch under the red blanket with the tassels.
They fell asleep there. Their legs are tangled.
Mam’s hair is in Da’s collar and his hand is on her hip like it is the only place it is allowed to be.
I tiptoe past because I do not have to, but I like the game where the house is quiet and I am the only one who knows it is awake.
In the kitchen there is a plate with a fox on it.
My tutor left gingerbread for me and wrote a note in curly letters that says For Liam, from the kitchen sprites.
I take two pieces, even though I could take five.
I eat them by the window where the garden is, the one Da planted when I was five.
The rosemary is big now. It smells like winter and pizza.
There is a little violin under the tree.
It has a ribbon on it that looks like a river.
I know it is for me because Mam said I could try something that sings with strings if I kept practicing my scales on the piano.
I pick it up very carefully, the way Da showed me with the big bottles in the wine room.
It feels like it wants to be held by someone small.
I tuck it under my chin and pull the bow across the strings the way the teacher did in the video.
It makes a noise that sounds like a door being polite.
Da stirs on the couch and says a word in Irish that means he is impressed even when he is sleepy.
Mam groans and pulls the blanket over her face and says I am not allowed to be a genius before breakfast.
I smile because I have already eaten two gingerbread foxes and no one knows yet. The dog knows. He comes over and licks my toes until I fall onto my bottom and laugh so hard the house laughs with me.
This is our house, I think. And I really like it here. Especially because the dog still will not stop licking my toes.