“It’s okay.Back.Back!”
I’m dashing toward them as well, but I have nothing on Maisey’s speed.
Jesus.
She’s fast.
She’s fast. She can hammer. She can paint. She can fix fuse boxes and roofs and plumbing and doors.
She can do anything, and she does itwell.
Fuck, competence is hot.
But the barn is not.
The boxy, two-story, formerly red building creaks and groans and leans. The sound of dry, old wood splintering crackles through the crisp fall morning.
“I didn’t mean to.” June’s voice is high and tight, her face flashing with horror.
Probably afraid of how much trouble she’s about to be in.
But Maisey grips her arm tighter and pulls her farther and farther away from the barn. “It’s okay. I know. I know. Back. Get back.”
“It’s falling the other way.”
Maisey pauses and looks back at the barn. Then she spots me as I reach them. She looks at the barn once again, her lips moving quickly.
June does that in class.
Maisey’s doing math in her head.
They both move their lips like they’re saying the problems out loud.
Maisey likes math.
Maisey does math.
That’s as hot as competence.
The barn creaks heavily again, and four rapid-fire snaps get my brain out ahead of my hormones.
She grabs June’s arm with one hand, drags her three feet to me, grabsmyarm, and hauls us both another fifteen feet away.
“Mom,” June whispers.
“I don’t want—” Maisey starts, and then she stops talking altogether as the barn gives one final groan and collapses on top of itself with a racket like ten loads of lumber being dumped on each other at once.
Dust and wood splinters billow into the air, sending a cloud of dirt debris swelling out from the base.
June squeezes her eyes shut and holds up an arm, but the flying dust scatters and dissipates approximately where we were just a minute ago, settling to the dry ground with small swirls of final joy.
Maisey lets out a loudhooo.
June squeezes her lips together, but a noise still slips out, like she’s trying not to cry.
“Well, that was fun,” Maisey says.
Dust is still swirling around her truck. A small cloud of it, but still enough that we can’t see yet if there’s any damage from splintered wood that might’ve flown off the outside of the structure.
