Luca loved his mother. First of all, Molly Levi was pretty. Luca was sure of that. She gave the best hugs, and she loved all the things that Luca and Brennan did, like puzzles, books, and games. She even admitted more than once that as a young girl she, too, enjoyed playing in the dirt with the boys. Yep. Mrs. Levi was the best.
She worked as an audiologist at the hospital near their home, which meant she helped people who couldn’t hear as well as they wanted to. Luca never asked how she did this, but he imagined her speaking to patients through a long pipe stuck in their ear, like the talk tubes on the playground.
She had just arrived home when Luca, Brennan, and Mr. Levi walked in the door, fresh from their errands. It was still hot, so Mr. Levi had bought Luca and Brennan each a small smoothie from the Dash Mart convenience store.
The boys loved Dash Mart. It had every kind of drink and sweet you could think of. But they knew better than to ask for certain things. Mr. and Mrs. Levi were very strict about sugar.
“Mommy!” the boys chorused happily upon seeing their mother. They sprinted from the front door to the kitchen to meet her where she had begun sorting the mail.
“Hello, my boys!” she said, smiling. “Did you have a wonderful day?”
“Mm. I guess so,” Luca said shyly, grinning up at his mother.
“Mommy, guess what!” cried Brennan.
“What?”
“We played a new game in computers today—‘Super Math Brothers’ or something like that. I got the highest score!”
Brennan beamed with delight. Luca did not. Much as Luca loved his big brother, school came easy to Brennan, and that sometimes bothered Luca. And besides, if Luca had gotten the highest score on something, he probably wouldn’t have even thought to tell his parents.
“Good job, son,” said Mrs. Levi, smiling back and hugging Brennan. “What kind of math was it?”
“Um, I forgot,” said Brennan with a laugh and a roll of his eyes.
Oh please, thought Luca.
Just then, Luca’s sister, Saoirse, materialized in the doorway. Mr. and Mrs. Levi lovingly called her Liberty, which is what her name meant in Irish and had been easier for Saoirse to spell when she was young—she did not like her real name back then.
Now sixteen years old, Saoirse loved her name because it made her feel very exotic and European in her small American city in the desert, but she smiled just the same when her parents called her Liberty.
She was pretty, like Mrs. Levi, but with red hair, where Mrs. Levi’s was light brown. She had gotten so tall in the last couple years, it felt like she was much older than sixteen, and it made Luca a little sad. They had been best friends once.
Saoirse had just gotten her driver’s license over the summer and was allowed to take “her” car to school on Thursdays and Fridays. “Her” car was the one Mr. Levi had driven before she was born, a small Toyota coupe with so many miles on it that Mr. Levi kept it around only as an extra.
Until Saoirse started driving, it had usually sat in the part of the garage that was mostly old boxes and camp things. Saoirse only called it “her” car in front of her friends now. Mr. Levi would correct her if he heard.
“Hello, family!” she called a little too importantly. She strode toward the kitchen and placed a hand on each boy’s head, smacking her lips in a mock “muah!” before embracing both parents in a brief group hug.
“How was studying, sweetheart?” asked Mr. Levi, obviously getting the how part out of the way before he got to the real question of who.
“Fine, thanks,” Saoirse murmured, glancing at the tile floor.
“You were…” Mr. Levi prodded.
“At Becky’s,” she said.
“With…”
“Becky!” Saoirse seemed just about done with this.
Luca looked at Brennan, and Brennan looked at Luca. As girls went, their sister was pretty cool. But still weird.