Chapter Text
When Maddie gets home, she finds a hand-written note on the kitchen counter.
Went to the playground. Will bring Jee back after four. — May
As much as Maddie loves her daughter, she is grateful to get even ten minutes alone just to get things done without having to keep an eye on Jee. So, she uses her free time to go through the mail, write down a grocery list and wrap Josh’s birthday present. These are all things that would have taken much longer with Jee constantly asking questions or offering her “help”.
Maddie is just about to get started on folding the laundry when the doorbell rings. As she opens the door, she finds a very exhausted May awkwardly holding a sleeping Jee-Yun in her arms.
“She fell asleep on the way home from the playground,” May explains as she gently lays the little girl on the couch, careful not to wake her up.
“Thank you so much for babysitting. Especially on such a short notice,” Maddie says in a low voice.
“No problem, I’ll happily babysit again if you need me to,” May replies.
Maddie tries to offer her money for the trouble, but May refuses. She won’t even stay for coffee, saying that she has somewhere to be.
Once May has left, Maddie figures she has anywhere from five to twenty minutes of peace left before her little princess wakes up.
Later that night Jee-Yun sits by the dining table drawing on paper — and a little bit on the table itself — while her parents clean up after dinner. There’s an ever-growing pile of new artwork next to her, and the artist herself has a concentrated frown on her face.
The humans Jee draws are not quite yet anatomically accurate and human-shaped, but Chimney has learned to distinguish some of them. Uncle Buck is always a long and angular blob and Mommy-blob has long hair.
“Who’s this?” Chimney asks, pointing to the drawing Jee sets on top of the pile before grabbing a new blank piece of paper.
“It’s Daddy,” Jee says and starts drawing a small blob between two bigger ones — so most likely herself with her parents.
“Oh, I see!” Chimney says. “And this is the ambulance.” The blue mess on top of the boxy shape must be the lights.
Maddie, having put the last of the dishes in the dishwasher, also grabs one of the finished pictures. “Who is this?” she asks, pointing to one of the blobs in the picture.
Jee sighs, like she is frustrated that her parents can’t recognize the people in the pictures. “That’s May,” she says.
“Oh, yes, of course,” Maddie says. “And who is this?” She points to the other blob.
“It’s Ravi. They’re kissing,” Jee says matter-of-factly.
Maddie and Chimney share a look. Jee is still working on how to pronounce her Rs properly, so maybe they just misheard her.
“Sorry, who is it?” Chimney asks.
Jee looks up from her drawing and points to the one Maddie is holding. “It’s Ravi,” she huffs.
Maddie looks down at the picture. She’s not sure why Jee would just come up with the idea of Ravi and May kissing out of nowhere.
“Sweetheart,” Maddie says, crouching lower and looking Jee straight in the eyes. “Was… Was Ravi with May today?”
Jee nods. “At the playground.”
“And they were kissing?” Chimney asks.
Jee nods again and goes back to coloring the Jee-blob on the paper in front of her.
“Did you find anything?”
“No,” Chimney sighs.
Jee is already sleeping, but her parents have spent the past hour combing through Ravi and May’s social media profiles in an attempt to find something that would help either confirm or deny Jee’s story.
“Maybe Jee just made the whole thing up,” Maddie suggests.
“Or… maybe not,” Chimney says. “Look at this. Four weeks ago, Ravi posted a picture of this sunset.” He turns the phone to Maddie and shows her a picture of Ravi standing on a beach during a sunset. “And here,” Chimney says and taps a few times on his phone, “is a set of pictured May posted five days ago.”
Maddie swipes through the images. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“The sunset! It’s the same sunset!” Chimney says. There is a picture of a sunset, but Maddie is not entirely sure how it proves anything.
“So? Lots of people post pictures of sunsets.”
“Yes, but look at the clouds. It’s the same clouds!”
Maddie gets up and gets herself a glass of wine. Chimney continues to compare the shapes of the clouds in the pictures.
“Is this a little sad?” Maddie asks with a sigh.
“What?”
“That we’re spending our free time stalking May and Ravi because our daughter claims they were kissing?”
“It’s not just a claim, it’s blackmail material if we just find evi-”
Chimney cuts his sentence short and jumps off the couch. Maddie watches as he gets the laptop and sets it on the table.
“What are you doing?” Maddie asks.
“Getting evidence. Aha!”
Chimney turns the laptop to her. On the screen is footage from their doorbell camera.
“There’s May and Jee leaving… Here’s you coming home… There!”
The footage shows May walking along the sidewalk. Jee is not with her, but a second later Ravi appears, carrying the sleeping girl in his arms. He hands Jee over to May and steps back so that he’s almost hidden, and probably was from the door, but in the footage his arm is visible behind the fence.
“Well, that proves he was with May and Jee,” Maddie admits.
A couple minutes later, May appears on the camera again, leaving the house. Ravi steps out and just before they leave the screen, he wraps his arm around her.
“There!” Chimney says gleefully.
“So they’re… together?” Maddie asks, sipping her wine and trying to figure out what to make of this discovery.
“Seems so. But it has to be a secret, because Ravi’s never mentioned it and they’re not posting about it,” Chimney says and starts taking screenshots of the footage.
“Maybe it’s so new they haven’t had time to tell anyone?” Maddie suggests.
“Mm, maybe. But either way, I have my blackmail material. This should get me out of cleaning duties for at least a week.”