She couldn’t stop herself. Rushing forward, she caught her brother in a hug. As soon as she felt him stiffen in her hold, she released him. “You’re the best, Sam-I-Am.”
His face flushed, he motioned her toward the hallway. “Yeah, yeah.”
*
There really were no “good” bedrooms. The upstairs was chopped into oddly shaped spaces with no apparent rhyme or reason. Several had slanted ceilings following the angle of the roof, creating areas where Jules, as petite as she was, couldn’t even stand upright. What they lacked in quality and size, however, they made up for in quantity. She counted six rooms—but no second-floor bathrooms, to her dismay. Sam followed the twins’ voices down the hall, disappearing into one room as Dez popped out of another and ran toward Jules.
“Jules,” Dez breathed, her face glowing. “There’s another upstairs. And you know how you get there?”
“How?”
“A secret staircase!” Her dramatic whisper increased to a shriek by the end. Grabbing Jules’s hand, Dez hauled her to what appeared to be a linen closet. When Dez yanked open the door, there was an impossibly narrow stairway. “See?”
“I see.” Jules peered through the gloom that covered all but the bottom few steps. A shiver ran through her as she thought of all the things that could be lurking in the ancient attic—mice and bats and skeletons. Possibly serial killers. She fumbled just inside the doorframe. “Is there a light switch?”
“Is there electricity?” Tio’s voice asked from behind them. Turning toward him a little too enthusiastically, Jules was thankful that she could delay exploring the mysteries of the third floor—at least for a minute or two.
“Oh!” Her happy moment faded as the implications of his question sunk in. “Do you mean ‘is the electricity turned on’ or ‘is there any electrical wiring in this house’?”
“There’s electricity,” Dez answered for him as she reached to where Jules had been fumbling before. “See? It’s buttons, though, not switches.” The skinny staircase was illuminated by the harsh yet dim glare of a bare bulb. Jules exhaled with relief. At least there was power in this old wreck of a house. Dennis must be paying the bill. Would he expect her to change the bill over to her name? If so, it’d be the first test of her fake identity. Her throat felt like it was closing. Reaching up, she tugged at the V-neck of her shirt and coughed, trying to clear the imaginary impediment.
“W-what’s wr-wr-wr…” Sam’s huff of an exhale was short and impatient. “W-what’s the matter?”
Too late, she dropped her hand to her side. “Nothing.”
He just gave her a look and waited silently. Ty joined them, and all her siblings grew solemn as they watched her.
“Nothing,” she said with more force. “I’m just thinking of everything we need to do to make this place livable.”
“Beds,” Ty said, nodding. Jules held back a cringe. She hadn’t even thought about that.
“A TV.” That was Dez’s contribution.
“D-dishes.”
“A computer. Oh, and Internet.”
That’d be another test of her identity—and more monthly bills.
“Food.” Ty’s voice held the same longing that Tio’s had when he’d mentioned the computer. “Soon, please. I’m starving.”
“A horse.”
She rolled her eyes at the last offering, trying to fight down her panic. After using all of Mr. Espina’s cash to pay just a portion of Dennis’s fee, Jules had limited funds to set up a household of five—four of whom were still growing out of their clothes. Her initial impression of the house was that it would take an enormous influx of cash just to keep it from falling down on top of them.
As if to underscore her growing anxiety, a heavy rumble of thunder echoed through the house. Jules shot a nervous look at the ceiling. If the roof was weatherproof, she’d be shocked.
“C’mon, Jules,” Dez urged, tugging on her hand. “Let’s look upstairs.”
Deciding that whatever lurked in the attic couldn’t be worse than the worries that were multiplying in her mind, she allowed her sister to pull her up the narrow stairs. Each one creaked worse than the one before, and Jules’s stomach lurched with every step. She expected to fall through the ancient treads at any second, and she clutched Dez’s hand a little harder. The clomping of the boys’ feet behind them made her cringe.
As they passed through a door at the top of the stairs, she exhaled for the first time since they’d started ascending. Her relief at not falling to her death made her slow to take in her surroundings at first. When she finally looked around, Jules blinked in surprise.
She’d been expecting an unfinished, dirty attic, but the room—although definitely needing a good cleaning—reminded her more of an artist’s studio than a storage space. A stained-glass window set in the triangular east wall lit the space with muted colors.
“Wow.”