Re: [Carnival: Mars, Jamie, Si, David, Hannah]
Si hadn't thought, like, viscerally, vividly about Mom—while more or less sober—in years. Her words, reworked by Amy, still rang with her sentiment and her voice, and Si blinked at his twin sister (or close enough). That house, the one on the hill, was more like a living being than Mom had ever considered though, wasn't it? Because it had a hunger and it consumed. If it was a body, they were nothing but bones to fill its belly. And that wasn't a comforting thought. If the amusement park Amy was talking about was like that, Si thought it probably was a shit place to go. But, he kept that thought to himself. He glanced at Amy as Jamie asked about the place, but he didn't pose anything. And of course David had a creepy, ominous opinion to share. "Fish don't think the hooks or lures are beautiful. They think it's food." He said it like it was a joke, dry and off-the-cuff, an earthy counter to doomed philosophy. It wasn't that he disbelieved a place could be sinister. Obviously. But, the Hot Topic fortune cookie sayings couldn't be how they started today.
He shoved his hands in his pockets as Hannah peeled off, out of step with him, to lead them. He couldn't remember if Amy would've done the same, and he asked himself a question he'd keep close: did it matter? Si tucked his nose into his collar. He didn't lead. Still, maybe because it was a twin thing or maybe because he just knew, he knew what Amy thought they should do. "The games, maybe. We can throw hoops at bottles." A huff, another look to Hannah, then to Mars. He smiled, just there. "We can win Mars a teddy bear. Or Jamie a giraffe." They might not recognize it, but he was teasing them.