My Stepbrother Is a Demon novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: Beale Pest Control

Mom blinked.

"What thing?"

The housekeeper dropped the pot in the sink.

Augustin coughed into his fist, which I'd never heard him do.

"A spider," I said. "A big one. Under my bed. Move-in day."

"With a shoe?"

"My good shoe."

"Your Air Max?" Mom turned and stared at me. "You hit a spider with the Air Max you made me drive to three malls for?"

"It was a really big spider."

Ivo held up his hands about the width of a beanbag chair.

Mom looked at his hands.

Then at me.

Then she laughed, wet and surprised, and covered her face.

"Oh my God. You two are idiots."

"Yes," Ivo said.

She took a long breath and put both hands flat on the counter.

"Okay. Here's what happens."

She pointed at both of us.

"You don't do anything in this house that I'll have to hear through a wall. You don't break up at Thanksgiving. And Ivo, if you make her cry, I will cut your hair in your sleep."

"That's fair," he said.

"It's not a joke."

"I know. It's still fair."

Mom picked up her phone and her purse.

At the door she stopped.

"The girls at the salon are going to want details," she said, and walked out.

I sat down on the kitchen floor, because my legs gave out.

Augustin handed me a dish towel, though I wasn't crying.

The next week the phone didn't stop.

The first client's sister had silverfish.

Her neighbor had mice.

Their book club had a woman with carpenter ants and a woman with a raccoon.

Another woman said, "I just want somebody to look at my attic and tell me I'm not crazy."

Every third house had pests that weren't mice.

Usually near a gratitude journal.

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