[Citricious and Turbolizard only, please.]
It was one of those lazy afternoons that Marilyn loved best, not having to cater to the whims of customers or her children, as much as she loved them. Faline had taken Erich out to the park, since it was such a nice day, and Marilyn could hardly say no, since it would give her time to herself.
Things had been crazy around the house recently. Faline was getting ready to graduate from high school and all she could think about where studying for tests and the letters from colleges on whether or not she had been accepted. Marilyn hadn't been too worried about it -- Faline was a smart girl and she would make it, no matter what she decided to do, but she also remembered what she was like at that age. She always envied her sister who had always known and had had an actual talent to work with, whereas she just had the shop.
Erich was also getting older as well and was becoming quite talkative. And by talkative, he would utter one or two sentences a day that had both the mother and daughter celebrating in joy. Now he could actually vocalize what he wanted instead of screaming about it! ...Not like it matter. He still screamed. There was lots of screaming.
But not right now. Right now, it was just Marilyn, her book, and the shop. She quite liked it that way, thank you.
