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“Do you want a tour? I can show you around most of it. Just

not Claire’s office or her personal rooms. She got the piano

tuned. I’ve been playing it. I could play you something if you

want. We could get a snack in the kitchen, Jean is an amazing

chef, and then we could come back out here.”

Amy and Elva nodded.

“Yeah,” Elva said. “That would be nice.”

“I’ve been guessing what the inside looks like. I bet it’s all

expensive furniture and crazy art, the kind that people pay tons

of money to collect. Marble floors, the kind of appliances

you’d see in commercial kitchens, wainscoting and crown

moulding because the house looks like a mansion and

mansions always have old-school things like that, and all those

strange new gadget things that do everything for people. It’s

probably a smart house where it’s all technological and crap.

Do voices talk to you to turn the lights on and off? Is the toilet

voice activated? Does it wipe for you?”

“Oh my God,” Elva sighed. “You are so extra, Amy.”

“I’m serious! Does it?”

“No!” Haley laughed. “Not that I know of. And there are

toilets all over the world that wipe for you. They’re called

bidets.”

“I don’t mean a bidet,” Amy sniffed. “That’s boring.”

“They’re just regular toilets. No fancy gadgets. No voices.

The piano is incredible, though, and there’s nice art. I doubt

it’s the collectible kind. Claire seems to buy what she likes,

whether it’s expensive or not.” Okay, when had she noticed

that exactly? “The furniture is kind of heavy and old school

and so are the fixtures, but the house was how it was, and I

guess Claire left it original. It kind of suits the beach. I mean,