Then he goes.
Rae appears with her hand resting on a very round belly and the satisfied expression of someone who has successfully cleared her house. I look at Lumi.
"My sister," Lumi says.
I look at Rae. At Lumi. Back at Rae.
"Your sister," I say.
"My sister," Lumi says.
Alexandra appears at the top of the stairs. She looks down at me. At Rae's belly. At me again.
"I told you," she says.
"You did," I say.
"I said my momma had a baby in her tummy," she says. "At the yard. I told you."
"You did tell me," I say.
"People don't always listen," Alexandra says, with the patience of someone managing a recurring problem. She comes down the stairs and stands beside Rae and puts her hand very gently on Rae's belly the way she has clearly been instructed to do and looks at me to make sure I'm seeing this.
I'm seeing it.
"Beautiful," I say.
Alexandra nods. Vindicated.
Rae looks at me with warm amusement. "Come on," she says. "We have time."
We don't have time. We have Lumi doing my hair while Alexandra provides commentary from the chair she has dragged to the center of the room specifically for this purpose. We have Rae doing something with makeup that I have no objection to because she clearly knows what she's doing, her belly bumping the edge of the vanity and her not noticing or not caring. We have the toy from downstairs still making its sound and a cat I didn't know existed appearing on the bathroom counter and Alexandra explaining at length that the cat's name is Mr. Business and he is very serious.
"Is he," I say.
"He only likes me," Alexandra says. "And Silas."
I look at her.
"He sat in my daddy Ash’s lap once," she says. "He wiggles too much, then Mr. Business got mad and daddy screamed. He said he didn’t, but he did."
I look at Lumi in the mirror. Lumi's mouth curves. She keeps doing my hair.
Rae steps back and looks at me. Nods once. Alexandra slides off her chair and stands in front of me with her hands clasped.
"You look beautiful," she says.
"Thank you," I say.
"You should wear sparkly things more," she says. "I do."
"I'll take that under advisement," I say.
She nods and goes to find Mr. Business.
I'm in the dress and Lumi is finishing the laces up my back when I realize I left the shoes that actually go with the dress on the floor of my Gold House room. Dalton answers on the second ring.
"My black heels," I say. "Floor of my room. Can you—"
