“Thank you,” Fox said in their most aggrieved tone.
“Moving on,” Indira said.
Bobby’s house was so Bobby that I wanted to seal it in an acrylic display case and give it to our children.
(God, please don’t tell him I evenmentionedchildren; I don’t want to scare him off.)
It was a perfectly square house.With two perfectly angled pieces of gingerbread making a perfect child’s-drawing roof.It had perfectly symmetrical windows.He’d even used some of the frosting to make white lines that were supposed to be snow, and there were six of them on each side.
“It’s very…you,” Fox said.
“BOBBY, IT’S SO GOOD!IT’S THE BEST ONE YET!”
“It’s the best one yet?”I said.“Does it have a Batcomputer?”Keme chose that moment to punch me in the kidney, so I had to moan as I added, “It’s super cute, Bobby.”
And then it was time for Indira’s.
Let’s be real here: we all knewsomethingwas coming.
None of us was ready.
It was beautiful.It was perfect.It wasbeyondperfect.
House wasn’t the right word; it looked like a fairytale castle.Each piece of gingerbread had been hand cut.The icing on the roof looked like real snow that had built into drifts.Little curlicues of icing decorated the walls, and more icing and little gingerbread trees made it look like—
Okay, I’m just going to say it:
It made it look like a gingerbread house in a forest.
The kind that lost, wandering children might decide to nibble on.
Fox was the first one to speak (of course), but all they said was “Remarkable.”
“Oh my GOD!”(That was a whisper for Millie.) “It’s so pretty!”
Keme was staring at it, and the best word for the look on his face wasentranced.
“That’s incredible, Indira,” Bobby said.
“Uh, I think you win,” I said.
“You definitely win,” Fox said.
“Hold on,” Indira said, but you could tell she was pleased.“We haven’t seen Millie’s.”
“Oh, mine isn’t very good,” Millie said.
Bobby gave Keme a nudge, and the boy roused himself long enough to blink and then say, “Yours is probably the best.”
I mean, he was still learning, so you’ve got to give him points for trying.Plus, the comment made Millieglow.
When we saw Millie’s, I think we all stopped breathing.
All of us.
Even Indira.
Because it was Hemlock House.
