Re: Basement: Audrey, Hannah, and Si
She knew he wouldn't want the basement. She didn't either, even though she'd never seen anything in their old basement. But she'd been there after and after and after, and the thing that had followed Si out of the basement had been as much a part of their lives as the bent-neck lady had. She understood, and she didn't tug when his feet skidded to a stop. She stepped down and called out, and then Si reeled her back, and she let him. His hand on her shoulder, she waited for Audrey's little steps to come higher and higher, and she leaned against Si a little bit. She didn't tell him it was okay, or that it would be okay; she didn't even consider it. They'd been lied to a lot about the things that scared them when they were small: they don't exist, they're not there, you're imagining them. And she didn't minimize things now. And she'd had it easier, better, and little girls got hugs and promises of lockets, while little boys got told they couldn't be scared.
She knew he would think Audrey looked young. It wasn't just how Audrey looked, not really, and it was the bright innocence that illuminated the young girl's face. Promise, a life where the slate was still relatively clean, and that showed. It was a good thing, like the first flower of Spring, and she assumed Si would understand why Hannah was living here now. "You can go back down in a minute," she promised Audrey in a near-whisper, because she'd lived with Audrey long enough to know when quiet and still was needed. And it was getting late, and people would be heading home, and it would be okay. And she knew she and Si probably didn't look like twins. He was thick where she was not, and he was over a foot taller than her, and he was quiet and she wasn't, not really. Even now, as the oddness of the night took hold, she reached for Audrey's wrist and tugged, tugged a tiny bit. "'Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint,'" she whispered to the girl, a quote encouragingly offered in a whisper that was too loud to really be a whisper at all.
Si reached out a hand to shake, and she smiled and let them say their greetings, their hellos, without interruption.