“Baby-raising partner.” Patricia winks at me before kneeling and chattering with Luca.
“Enzo is Luca’s uncle,” Axel explains. “His sister carried the baby.”
“That was very kind of her.”
“I mean, she was planning to raise him on her own, but she, uh, passed.”
“How terrible. I’m so sorry, Mr. Bellanti.”
“You can call me, Enzo,” I say.
Axel claps his hands and flashes Patricia his bright smile. “I’ll show you to your room, Patricia. We can talk tomorrow.”
“Perfect. I need to unpack.” She turns to us. “Nice meeting you all.”
“Time for a tour of your new home, Luca.” Axel swoops him into his arms. “Remember me? We met in New York. But now we’re going to live in Boston, isn’t that cool?”
Luca watches him.
“Boston is the best place in the world. You’re probably an LA guy currently, but trust me, you’ll love Boston. It’s where your uncle and I met.”
Axel smiles happily at Luca.
“Oh my God,” Sofia says.
“We can see the harbor with the cool boats, including an old ship that looks like the ship where the Tea Party started. You probably don’t know about the Tea Party, but interestingly, it wasn’t really a party.” Axel frowns. “Or if it was, people have gotten way better at throwing parties. We use fewer feathers now.”
Sofia puts her hand over her mouth.
“So, this is the kitchen, Luca.” Axel waves his hand around. “It’s sort of magical. Those look like normal cabinets, but they actually hold special things.” He presses his knee against a cabinet, and it opens to reveal a dishwasher. “Ta-da.”
Luca blinks.
“I don’t think Luca knows what a dishwasher is,” I say.
“Oh. Well Luca, a dishwasher is super cool. It holds dishes. Like a cabinet.” His face falls. “And it looks like a cabinet. But trust me, this is special. You put dirty things inside it, and magic water pours inside it, and washes everything dirty away.”
Luca reaches for it.
“Tell you what, tomorrow after breakfast you can make your dishes super dirty, and then we’ll put them in the magical dishwasher, and you’ll see how clean they get.”
Luca’s mouth quirks.
Axel turns to me. “You know, they should totally make clear dishwashers.”
“Clear ones?” Sofia frowns.
“Oh, yeah. Out of glass. Or, uh, durable plastic. You don’t want the glass to break, but you don’t want the plastic to release the wrong chemicals. It’s a job for a material scientist. Lots of those at MIT. We could start a company together!”
I blink. “You want to start a company with me selling see-through dishwashers?”
“We can expand it to see-through washing machines.” Axel’s whole face lights up. “And see-through toasters. That would be super cool!”
“I think the market is open for you,” Sofia says.
“Right?” Axel’s grin widens. He takes Luca to another cabinet. I’m pretty sure from the shape that it’s the refrigerator. “So, this is also magical. You can press it and see what it turns into.”
Luca leans closer.
