The noise was worse inside. Everything that could be turned on had been turned on. At the epicenter, I found Candice lying on the floor with her feet propped up on the wall, talking on the phone as if she were in the sound proof booth of a TV game show. I unplugged the telephone, her mouth forming a protest I couldn’t hear, and sent the twins off on a quest to restore quiet. Conversation was impossible until they succeeded. Candice came after me, trailing the dismembered telephone and an inaudible whine, until silence spread through the house. She caught sight of Kel leaning against the counter next to me and stared at him with cow eyes.
“Whoa, who’s this?”
I performed introductions, then stood back and watched Kel give her his dimpled smile. She melted. Did I look like that, I wondered.
