Bastian's Storm (Surviving Raine 2)

It wasn’t exactly like Alex’s picture, of course, but the outside of the house I was staring at still had a cottage-like feel to it. The picture must have been taken in the spring because there were flowering trees in the front and daffodils all around in the flower beds. The website said it had four bedrooms and three bathrooms, which was more than enough for us. There was even a finished basement and a swing set in the back.

“Hey, Alex,” I said.

“Hmm?” He didn’t even look up from his picture.

“Take a look at this, and tell me what you think.

He let out a dramatic sigh but placed his crayon down and hauled himself up from the floor. He walked around the coffee table three times before I told him to cut it out, and he plopped down in my lap to look at the computer.

“What do you think of this house?” I asked.

Alex studied it for a minute and had me go through some of the pictures of the house’s interior.

“That one,” he said as the website displayed a picture of one of the bedrooms. It was painted light green and had a wide strip of wallpaper full of spaceships running around the top of the wall.

“That one what?” I asked.

“That’s my room.”

“It is?”

“Yep.”

I smiled.

“Okay, then.”

Alex rolled off my lap and went back to his crayons. He picked up a brown one and started adding a swing set to the drawing.

Raine returned an hour later with carry-out in her hands.

“I didn’t feel like cooking,” she said as she walked in.

“I could have made dinner,” I said. The vast majority of what we could get for carry-out around here was full of fat and carbs. There were very few cuisines I would put up with except for…

“It’s Thai,” she replied with a wide grin and raised eyebrows.

“Did you get me a tofu tower?” Alex piped up.

“I did.”

“With peanut sauce?”

“Yep.”

“Sweet!” He jumped up from his spot on the floor and raced to the table.

“Hey, Raine?”

“Yes?” she asked as she started taking red and white containers out of a plastic bag. She arranged them on the table as Alex grabbed each box to open and sniff at it.

“This one’s Dad’s!” he announced as he wrinkled his nose and shoved the container to the other side of the table.

“Could you come take a look at something?” I asked.

“Just a sec,” she replied. She grabbed some juice out of the refrigerator and poured Alex a glass before joining me on the couch.

Nervously, I handed the laptop over to Raine. She peered down at the screen, and creases appeared on her forehead.