Chapter 13

IT TOOK FOUR whole days before Elliana allowed me - after a few convincing arguments - to be up and about the house. My injuries aren't that fully healed yet but the dark red scratches around my neck have now reduce to a tinge of pinkish blotches.

I was sitting on the porch swing, reading a book when Leon came out the front door with a ladder. He said he was going to change the old light bulbs with new ones and asked me to hold out the box of bulbs for him.

My eyes wandered across the porch. I noticed multiple string lights were wrapped around the porch columns. Some were on the bushes and around the tree where Elli's tire swing hung.

That's weird. What's with all the lights?

"You don't remember?" Leo asked with one eyebrow raised, skepticism dripped from his voice. "You gave us that idea."

"What? When?" I asked, bemused.