Outside the bathroom, she was able to calm down as Step methodically slaughtered spiders. "They were coming up out of the drain in the bathtub," said Mary Anne. Step glanced into the tub and sure enough, it had been plugged with wet paper towels. "Betsy was on her little potty when she started yelling 'pido, pido,' and I finally realized that it wasn't some cute bathroom word like peepee, she was saying spider."
"You did great," said Step. "You kept it under control. You won't believe it, but this happens like about once a season. First crickets, then june bugs, then gnats on the night that Zap was born. I think we're going through the ten plagues of Egypt."
"Spiders are the horriblest things. I can't stand the way their little legs go up and down so delicately, like monster ballet dancers."
"Oh, keep talking, I can't wait to see what inhabits my dreams tonight."
"You're looking at them, my talking can hardly be any worse than that," said Mary Anne.
"Yeah, but now I'm not looking at spiders, I'm looking at monster ballet dancers. Disney missed a bet with Fantasia."
Finally the spiders were cleaned up and all the paper towels were clotted in the bottom of a garbage bag.
When Step came back into the kitchen from taking the bag outside, Mary Anne was standing by the table talking to DeAnne.
"Well, you're a hero, Mary Anne."
"Any time," said Mary Anne. "Only next time we can skip the spider part." She started for the door into the laundry room, then stopped. "Oh, your mom called, DeAnne. Nothing's wrong, don't worry, she just wanted your pie crust recipe."
"My mother wants to make pies?"
"Oh, doesn't she ever?"
"My dad's the piemaker in my family," said DeAnne. "But miracles happen every day, right?" Step dialed the wall phone for her, then handed her the receiver so she didn't have to get up while nursing Zap.
They said their good-byes to Mary Anne. Then came the mess of getting Robbie and Betsy to bed. Stevie was already lying in his bed, and Step made Robbie get under the covers quietly so as not to waken his big brother.
Only after Step was already in bed beside DeAnne did he realize that the Christmas lights were still on outside.
"Oh, just leave them," said DeAnne.
"Just as you wouldn't allow your family to eat that meat loaf, I will not permit my family to sleep in a house that has some weird extension cord arrangement connected up outside."
He put on a bathrobe, and then, remembering how cold it was outside, a coat over that. Out back Step found the plug and pulled it, then walked around front to make sure the lights were off. By now he was quite cold, and he rushed back into the house, locked up, took off his coat, and then moved through the house checking that all the doors were locked and glancing in to make sure the kids were covered.
The routine was so set that it wasn't till he was already walk ing into his and DeAnne's room that he realized that he hadn't seen Stevie in his bed. Robbie was there, but Stevie's sheets were pulled back and the bed was empty. Was he up going to the bathroom? He hadn't been in the kids' bathroom or anywhere else in the house-could he, for some reason, be in the master bathroom?
Step walked around the bed and checked in the bathroom. No Stevie. This was impossible. Unless Stevie was playing a trick, hiding in the closet or something, there was nowhere that he could be. Step headed back to the boys' room to check the closet before he pushed the panic button, but then he had to stop cold in the doorway. There was Stevie. Right there on the top bunk. The covers were all the way down, as Step remembered, but Stevie was there. He was curled up and looked like he was completely asleep.
I am way too tired, thought Step. When I actually looked into the room I didn't see anything wrong, did I?
It was only afterward that I thought I hadn't seen him, but of course he was there all along.
Step went back to bed, where DeAnne was already snoring, and soon he was asleep, too. If he had any spider dreams, he didn't remember in the morning.
The next couple of days were a flurry of activity, but that was to be expected. Everybody got up at different times and it seemed like half the ward was either coming by or calling up and insisting that DeAnne or Step or both needed to do this or that in preparation for Christmas. In the afternoon of Christmas Eve, as DeAnne was helping Elizabeth wrap a present in the living room, she thought of something and called out to Step, who was in the kitchen putting away the groceries. "It just occurred to me that I honestly can't remember seeing Stevie eat anything for the past few days."
"I haven't seen anybody eat anything for the past few days," Step called back. "I don't think anybody has eaten in the presence of anybody else since school let out for the holidays."
"No, I'm serious," said DeAnne. "And he hasn't been playing computer games or anything, he's mostly been in his room. Do you think he might be sick?"
"I'll check on him when I'm done with the groceries," said Step.
That took only a few more minutes, and then Step headed on down the hall and turned left into the boys'
room. Robbie was on the floor, wrapping a present. "Get out get out!" he screamed at Step.
"Sorry," said Step. He immediately turned and stepped back into the hall, drawing the door almost closed behind him.
"You ruined the surprise!" Robbie shouted.
"No, I didn't," answered Step. "I didn't see anything. I was just coming back to see if Stevie was all right."
"I'm fine," answered Stevie.
"He's fine!" shouted Robbie.
"I can hear your brother quite well without your relay service, thanks just the same, Robbie," said Step.
"Stevie, your mother's worried that you haven't been eating much lately."
"I'm not hungry"
"You've got to eat something."
"Yes," said Stevie.
"Will you come to supper tonight?"
Stevie didn't say anything for a moment. "I guess," he said.
"Stevie, is something wrong?"
Another pause. "Nope."
Step went back to the living room, where DeAnne was still wrapping presents with Betsy, who periodically inserted a hand or a finger or, sometimes, her face into whatever DeAnne was doing. As a result, DeAnne had stuck about a dozen small pieces of tape all over Betsy's face, and they were protruding everywhere like a peeling sunburn. "Ooh, Betsy, you look so pretty."
"I heard you calling to Stevie," said DeAnne.
"Robbie wouldn't let me in the room. He was wrapping presents."
"He already wrapped yours."
"He's wrapping Zap's. But he didn't want to ruin the surprise."
"Didn't he buy it with you standing right there?"
"You know Robbie," said Step. "If you wreck one of his surprises, you might as well cut off your own head and save yourself a lot of suffering."
Step finally had a break about four o'clock and slipped into his office to catch a few minutes' work on the program. He was this close to finishing it, and if he could have it done, ready to fedex it to Agamemnon, then he- would have so much more relaxed a Christmas. It was just ticky stuff now anyway, but it meant changing a line or two, then compiling it, then running it and seeing what it looked like, then tweaking it again and compiling it again ... It ate up the clock without making that much visible progress.
"Step, can't you come to supper on Christmas Eve?"
Step turned around to see DeAnne standing in the doorway of his office.
"And Stevie won't come either. I didn't prepare a banquet but even self-employed people are allowed to have Christmas Eve off."