Ding dong!

Chrissy threw herself behind the sofa so she wouldn’t be visible from the front windows. The sun was setting and the last dying rays made her feel exposed to everyone outside. She cursed herself for not closing the blinds, but Sienna was already opening the door.

“Mom! Abigail wants to know if she can come play!”

“Of course, she does,” Chrissy muttered. She shivered as the crisp autumn snaked its way into the house. “Sure, darling!” She said with a brighter tone. “Just a for a bit. We need to run some errands soon.”

There were no errands, not at this point in the evening, but Chrissy could come up with something to do—anything to get out of the house and Sienna sent back to her own. The neighbor’s seven-year-old child visited endlessly, without warning. Sometimes Chrissy felt as if she were raising both Sienna and Abigail. And maybe someone self-righteous on a mommy message board would tell her she should embrace it, that she should be glad of the privilege, and that someone else’s child felt her home was so safe she would want to spend time there every day, but Chrissy was not that selfless. Sometimes she just wanted to be alone, responsible for her own family and no one more.

“Can I have a snack?” asked Abigail.

Chrissy blinked. Her voice sounded deeper than usual. Maybe there was a cold going around. “You just got here, Abigail. Why don’t you and Sienna play upstairs for a while, and then we’ll get something to eat.”

“But I’m so hungry.” The child stared at her, blue eyes burning into brown.

“Well…as I said, in a bit.”

“I’m so hungry.”

Sometimes you had to throw tact away with children—especially this child. “I said in a little while, Abigail. It’s slightly rude to go into other people’s homes and ask them to feed you right when you walk in the door.”

Abigail held eye contact, but abruptly turned around and went up the stairs with Sienna. Chrissy sighed in relief.

********************

She busied herself tidying up the house. At least it would look a little better when Sienna and Abigail came back down. Her mind flashed back to more advice she’d seen on mommy groups. You don’t have to clean each day! Let your home look lived in! You don’t need a full playroom reset every night! Those people probably didn’t get uninvited daily visitors. At least it was easier to stay tidy once your kids were out of the toddler stage. She put on a mindless reality show as she worked.

Two episodes in, she realized some time had passed and it was getting darker. A true dreary late autumn evening, and she still hadn’t shut the blinds. As she moved to the front of the house, she remembered the snack.

“Sienna! Abigail! Are you guys hungry? You can come grab something!”

She was greeted with silence. That was only really suspicious when your kids were younger, right? The moment dragged on.

“Girls!”

Sienna’s bedroom door creaked open. “Abigail doesn’t want to let me go, Mom!”

Chrissy breathed in deeply. She would not hate the neighbor’s child. She would not hate the neighbor’s child. “Okay, but you can come downstairs if you want. Abigail doesn’t get to decide.”

“She won’t let me go!”

Chrissy’s phone buzzed. “One second!”

The text was from Abigail’s mom, Megan.

M: Hey! Just wanted to let you know I sent Abigail over. She’ll be there in a few minutes!

Chrissy frowned. She glanced at the time, then at the show she’d been watching.

C: Abigail’s been here for an hour.

Not surprising. Abigail’s mom let her freely roam the neighborhood, more or less. She probably just had no idea where she was.

Buzz!

‍ ‍M: No, she just walked out the door a minute ago. She’ll be there in a few. Tell her to wear her helmet when she bikes home.

Chrissy ran her hand over her face. The people she had to deal with.

‍ ‍C: She’s definitely here. She’s playing with Sienna upstairs.

The seconds creaked by as Chrissy waited for Megan to reply.

Then the doorbell rang.

Chrissy opened the door and found herself staring at Abigail. “What the—? Okay if you did something crazy like climb out the window…Hang on, your mom is calling me now. Hello?”

“Tell Abigail to come home.”

“What?” The line crinkled with static.

“If you let the other one in, tell Abigail to come home.”

“What on earth are you talking about? Hello? Hello?” She shook the phone. More static.

“If you invited her in…Not good…Send Abigail home.”

“Ok, sure, whatever.” Chrissy normally tried to sound polite even when her neighbors drove her crazy, but if this child was going to be climbing out windows and down trees to pretend she hadn’t even been in the house, Chrissy was at the end of her rope with these people.

“Your mom wants you back home,” she said to the child on the porch.

Without waiting for a response, she shut the door and went to climb the stairs, eyes rolling. As she did, Megan’s voice came faint from her phone one last time. “Good luck.”

“Sienna!” Chrissy called. “What’s going on up there?”

“Abigail won’t let me go.”

Cold settled in Chrissy’s chest. Seven more steps. “Abigail went home.”

“She won’t let me go.”

Down the darkened hallway.

“Her mom had me send her home, darling.”

She reached Sienna’s door. It was cracked, leaking a sliver of light into the hall. Chrissy forced herself to giggle. She would discover she was being silly, and she would get Sienna that snack she promised. Something elaborate. With a deep breath, she thrust the door fully open and looked straight into Abigail’s blue eyes.