“Maybe if everybody wasn’t so mean to her all the time, she wouldn’t be so mean herself.” Riley stormed out.

Blue gazed after her. “Our little girl is starting to act like a normal bratty kid.”

“I know. Isn’t it great?”

It was pretty great.

Dean finally left to look at some horses. Blue pulled white paint onto her brush, and Riley wandered back in, still carrying her guitar. “I bet nobody even sends her a birthday card.”

“I’ll get her a card. I’ll even make her a cake. We’ll give her a party ourselves.”

“It’d be better if more people would come.”

As Riley returned to Nita, an interesting idea struck Blue, a welcome diversion from worrying about what was and wasn’t taking shape on the walls. She thought it over for a while and finally called Syl at the resale shop.

“You want the town to throw Nita a surprise birthday party?” Syl said after Blue had explained. “And we’re supposed to pull it together in two weeks?”

“Pulling it together is the least of our problems. Getting anyone to show up is the challenge.”

“You really think throwing her a party will soften her up enough that she’ll go along with the town plan?”

“Probably not,” Blue said. “But nobody has a better idea, and miracles do happen, so I think we should give it a shot.”

“I don’t know. Let me talk to Penny and Monica.”

Half an hour later, Syl called back. “We’ll do it,” she said with a marked lack of enthusiasm. “You just make sure she’s there. It would be exactly like her to get wind of this and refuse to show up.”

“She’ll be there if I have to shoot her first and drag the body.”

After half a dozen more interruptions, several of them from Nita, Blue hung over the dining room’s two doorways some of the heavy blue plastic the builders had left. When it was secure, she added a NO ADMITTANCE ON PAIN OF DEATH sign. She was nervous enough without having them looking over her shoulder the whole time she worked.

At the end of the day, she made everyone in the house swear on their iPods, guitars, Tango, Puffy, and a certain pair of Dolce & Gabbana boots to stay out of the dining room until the murals were done.

That evening, she wandered into Nita’s bedroom just as the old lady was taking off her wig, revealing a flat cap of thin gray hair. “I had an interesting phone call today,” Blue said as she settled on the side of her bed. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but you’ll somehow get wind of it and then you’ll start bitching at me for keeping things from you.”