Francis was careful with his steps, making sure not to bump into anything. He moved slower than he normally would, that way she had a chance to tag him.
"Darn! You did! You got me!" He laughed, crossing his arms as he stood up straight. "You're pretty fast!"
"I am," she agreed, nodding her head sagely. She lifted up her foot, showing him her red sneakers. "It's my shoes. Mama says they make me go really fast."
"Magic," she said, nodding with certainty. "It's the color red. It's a magic color." Poppy watched their interaction with interest, her brow raised slightly. She continued to dry the dishes with a small grin on her face, only speaking when spoken to. The rest of the family spoke to each other with joyful voices, breaking out into laughter occasionally.
He knelt down, apparently in thought. "Okay, I see. So red is a magic color. What about blue? Is blue magic color?"
She rested her hands on his arms, a serious expression on her face as she considered his words. "It's a different magic," she said eventually, nodding to herself. "Red is for making you go faster. Blue is for making you smarter."
"Hm. What about the other colors? Is it just red and blue or are there more than that? Like yellow and green?" He tilted his head slightly, tapping his chin.
"They're all different," she decided, waving her hands to express the vastness of the situation. "They all have different magic." Her face soured, and she frowned. "Except mauve." She said the word carefully, as if it had taken time to learn how to pronounce it. "There's no magic there."
(Bee has seen things.) She nodded and her face brightened. "Are we going to the lake?" she asked, drumming her hands on his knees and looking up expectantly.
"You loooove her," Bee sang, laughing deeply at her own joke. Nickel, woken by all the chatter, approached them and nosed her back, and Bee turned to wrap her arm around the dog's neck in a loving embrace.
Francis raised an eyebrow, placing his hands on his hips. "Is it that obvious? I had no idea I felt that way."
She clapped her hands excitedly, hopping from foot to foot. "Did you know..." She stopped for a moment to fix Nickel's collar."Did you know.. um... that love is spelled l-o-v-e? It's not l-u-v." She spelled the letters very clearly, nodding to herself as she did as if reaffirming the correctness of the statement. "It's l-o-v-e. Mrs. Kilmer taught me that for 'Valentimes Day'."
"Is that so? That's pretty interesting. Thank you for telling me that. Maybe now I'll be able to write nice letters properly," he said, looking down at her.
"You're welcome," she said agreeably, sitting down on the floor next to a long-suffering Nickel. She pet the dog's head affectionately until a new thought came to her, and she looked up at Francis, squinting. "Are you two married?" she demanded, pushing her curls out of her face.
