Izabel paused the show when Cami was about to be home. She went to wait between the two sets of doors with her mask on.

The doorbell went off when Cami’s car pulled up, right on time. Cami ran into the small room and hugged her. Izabel lifted her off the ground. The air rushed over them and then the inner doors opened and they stepped into the house.

They took off their masks and Izabel leaned over to help Cami take off her shoes and then she kissed her toes. Cami giggled.

“How was your day?” Izabel asked.

“Great!” Cami said.

“What did you do?”

“Mmm, I don’t remember.”

“Nothing?”

“I sang a song to my friends! But that wasn’t during school.”

“Oh, I see.”

“That was after school, waiting for the cars.”

“Gotcha. And who are these friends?”

“They’re nice.”

“Do you know their names?”

“No,” Cami said, smiling.

“No?”

“I want kisses, Mama.”

“Where?”

“On my belly.” Cami lifted her shirt.

Izabel kissed her, left and right, so she had to move her nose back and forth into her stomach until Cami squealed.

“I want to eat!” Cami said.

“Okay, let’s get you set up.”

Kaito came out of his back room and Cami ran to him. Izabel went to slice an enormous apple for Cami’s snack.

“Hello!” Kaito said. “How was school?”

“Great!”

“Anything good happen?”

Cami shrugged. “Daddy?”

“Yeah?”

“I want you to tell me a scary story.”

“I’ve got to get back to work.”

“One story,” Cami said.

“One short story?”

“Yeah. About the dragon.”

“Okay. Once there was a dragon with eight heads and eight tails. His body was so huge that it covered eight valleys and eight mountains and trees grew all over him.”

“And his stomach was covered in blood!”

“That’s right,” Kaito said. “And he would come to this family’s house and eat one of their daughters, every year. So Susa-no-O came and built a big wall around their land with eight doors.”

“For eight heads!”

“Yup. And just inside each door was wine, thick, thick wine, and when the dragon burst in, every head slurped up the wine and fell asleep. And Susa-no-O used a great sword to defeat the dragon in its sleep.”

“But he lost it?”

“He lost the sword in the dragon and when he looked for it, instead he found Kusanagi.”

“The legendary sword!”

“The legendary sword!” Kaito repeated.

Cami picked up a foam sword and ran to Izabel and slashed her across the back of her legs. “Ksh, ksh, ksh,” Cami said.

Izabel ignored her and said, “Okay, your snack is ready.”

Cami ran to the table and sat patiently while Izabel walked the apple and a cup of juice over to her. Cami ate and watched The Backyardigans, an old show of animated animals, playing pretend and singing elaborate expository songs about their every action.