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Parker looked up at the house and sighed Ti at her from the — Hey! He’d taken the boards off the s! Fantastic

“Co up the short flight of stairs The back of the house was barricaded by more junk—a table, boxes, a couple of plastic chairs, a tire—so she went around the front, the dog walking so close to her legs that Parker almost tripped

She went inside and lurched to a halt

“Holy halos, Thing One,” she breathed

The hallway that yesterday she’d had to sidle doas completely e, but the entire hallas cleared She went down to the kitchen “My God! You did all this?”

“Yeah,” he answered

“You… Wow This is a”

The kitchen was much improved There were still plastic boxes of who-knehat, but the trash and cardboard and newspapers were gone And it sh the s

She glanced out theat the Duraced the side of the house It was already about a quarter full “That’s a lot of crap,” she murmured

“I kept soht want Over there on the table”

She glanced over, then did a double take at the glass case on the floor by the wall “Is that Apollo?”

Jaave him one”

“Really?”

“That’s what he eats”

“Well, we can’t keep hiives me the willies”

“Yes, Majesty He can stay in my room”

Whoops She did sound a little ireat Thank you”

“Here’s the deal,” Jae works, but it needs to be scoured It’s not the s cold The oven is shot and I think your mouse and all his friends live in there, so we should ditch it My uncle knows a used one you can buy pretty cheap The cupboards are bolted on, so if we tear them off, it’ll rip out chunks of the walls The best bet is probably to clean and paint them You’ll need a new subfloor and linoleum or tile in here, but the floors in the rest of the house are wood Clean them up, slap on soles, cut down some of the scrub around the house, fix the stairs to the dock and the real-estate agent says you et a little besides”

“Back taxes? And how much is a little?”

“Depends on the offer you get”

Crikey She didn’t really want to hear the actual figure “Think I’ll have enough left over to buy a house in Rhode Island?”

“Not even close”

A strand of panic laced through her Parker took a deep breath And another Looked at Apollo, who stared back impassively

You can only do what you can do, the Holy Rollers chih

She looked around the kitchen, which still had yards and yards of crap in it, then back at Thing One, as looking at her, arms folded, face unreadable

“Thank you, James,” she said

His expression softened “You’re welcome”

His eyes were dark, dark brown Best not to look for too long She cleared her throat “I guess I’ll get to work on my room”

“You do that”

She went down the hall, opened the door and got another shock

The room was completely empty All that stuff…the clothes and boxes and laone The rooer than it had appeared when crammed with junk; the ere open and somewhat battered screens were in the s It smelled clean It was clean