Must Love Black by Kelly McClymer

Author:Kelly McClymer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2008-01-03T00:00:00+00:00

Please inform Mr. Pertweath of all fun activities that are occurring this week. Feel free to send an e-mail or update me personally at the end of each day.

Umm. Right. Why would he need a memo when I could just tell him over dinner? Or, better yet, the girls could tell him. I’d thought my dad was a workaholic, but Mr. P made him look like a loafer. Then again, my dad didn’t have Lady Buena Verde breathing down his neck and telling him how to run his ship. The pet thing needed to go on the front burner.

The twins had apparently been giving it a lot of thought. “Maybe we shouldn’t get a traditional pet, like a cat or a dog,” Rienne said. “It seems cruel to get one only to pretend we’re having fun. That kind of pet should be with someone who would really have fun with it.”

“Just because we pretend the pet is for fun doesn’t mean there aren’t genuinely good reasons to get one,” I told them. I didn’t even offer illogical reasons, I spoke straight to their centers of common sense and practicality. “Having a pet can help lower your blood pressure, help you fight illness, and make you live a lot longer.”

Unhelpfully, Triste added, “Unless you fall off a cliff.”

“True.” Or got in a car accident. “But that we can’t help.”

Rienne was in the mood to challenge me. “Sure we can: We can make certain not to get too close to the cliff.”

I wasn’t about to let them sidetrack me. I could be logical too. It was something my father—and more recently, Krystal—found exasperating. “There are things we can control and things we can’t. You don’t eat a menu of gummi worms and M&M’s, now, do you?”

“Of course not, that’s not a healthy diet.”

“Exactly.” It was nice to have kids who actually got the importance of common sense. “So, even though we can get hit by a bus anytime we’re not looking, we still do everything we can to live forever.”

“Nobody lives forever.”

“No.” We all sounded so sad. I was picturing my mom. No doubt they were picturing theirs.

After a second when I tried to pretend that the words hadn’t just sucked away all my enjoyment, I said, “A pet solves a lot of problems for us. Why don’t we try it? If it doesn’t work, we’ll find a good home for the pet where people will have fun with it.”

“Okay.” They agreed with identical little sighs that said they were humoring me. Worked for me.

“Great! How about a goldfish?” It was fine with me that Rienne had already vetoed cats and dogs. You can’t trust a cat, and I was deathly afraid of dogs. Not to mention, they smelled, bit, and, worst of all, licked your face when you weren’t looking. “There’s not a lot of room up here, but a fish tank would fit in nicely.”

Triste and Rienne looked at each other, brows wrinkled and lips pursed. “Maybe.” The zero enthusiasm wasn’t encouraging.

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