Page 136 of Just Watch Me
“Sounds good,” Zane said. “And if your mum likes pastramiand salami, buy it. We’ll set up that online thing today, I’ll put in my credit card, and we’ll be good to go. What d’you reckon? Think you two can handle breakfasts and lunches?”
“Yes,” Finlay said, “and the medium kids can do the washing-up, because it’ll just be putting plates and things in the dishwasher.”
“And the frying pan for the eggs,” Scarlett said. “They could lay the table, too. And Finlay and I could switch off on cooking, so one of us does breakfast one day and the other one does lunch, and the next day, we switch. Because lunch is more work.”
“And if you don’t know how to do eggs well enough yet,” Finlay said, “I could cook them with you.”
Scarlett said, “I know how!”
“Oh,” Finlay said. “I just thought, in case.”
Zane’s marker was moving through the list. “Laundry next. That’s a big one. What should we do about that?”
“We could use the dryer,” Finlay said. “It’s not as eco-friendly, and it’s very expensive, but it means nobody has to iron, and ironing is heaps of work and maybe lifting.”
“It would be less work anyway,” Scarlett said, “because you don’t have to hang out the clothes or bring them in. But it’s not good for the environment.”
“We won’t worry about the environment for a few weeks,” Zane said. “Then we can go back to our earth-saving ways.”
“I guess,” Scarlett said. “Although it’s probably bad.”
“Everybody can help fold,” Finlay said, moving on from that. Which was good, because no question, Skylar would’ve been hanging out all those clothes in a heartbeat. Wet clothes for seven people? Sheets? Towels? No. “If we do a wash every day, it won’t be so much at one time.”
“How would you divvy up the laundry responsibility?” Zane asked. “As co-captains?”
Scarlett said, “I can be in charge of putting the laundryinto the washer and dryer every morning after breakfast, as long as Skylar teaches me. Nan says some clothes are more fragile, so there are different rules for them. And Finlay can be in charge of making sure everything gets folded.”
“After lunch,” Finlay said. “We should put times on the list so we know when we have to do the different things. And so Mum doesn’t think we won’t do it and starts doing it herself. That happens sometimes, because she doesn’t really like to yell, especially if she’s already tired. So I’ll say that I can do the food ordering at breakfast time, so people can tell me what they want, and we’ll fold the laundry after lunch. We’ll have to make a different plan once term starts, but we’ll know better by then how long it takes.”
“Good,” Zane said, and wrote it all down.
“And with the little kids,” Finlay said, “I should be in charge of George, and Scarlett should be in charge of Georgia. That’s who’s in our whanau, and it’s also boys with boys and girls with girls, which is better and not embarrassing. But you should put “Stories” on there and put Mum down for that, because she’ll feel bad if she doesn’t have anything.”
Zane found some tape and stuck the sheets to the wall, and the three of them stood back and contemplated them.
“We didn’t assign her bathroom,” Zane said.
“We could all do it, I guess,” Finlay said. “Except that I don’t know how.”
“Right,” Zane said. “Bathroom’s mine, then. I’ll clean it before I go, and again when I’m here on Tuesday. All this is going to be some work, though. Think you’ll be able to keep it up? If you don’t, Skylar’s going to think she has to jump in and do it, and it’ll be hard for her to give it up again.”
“We can do it,” Scarlett said. “It’s only for about nine days, and then some later, during term time. But that won’t be as much, because we’ll be in school all day. Especially if we eat lunch from the canteen instead of bringing it from home.”
“That’s a very good idea,” Finlay said. “As long as it’s not too expensive.”
“I’ll see that it works out,” Zane said. “I think I can see my way clear to buying some canteen lunches for two weeks.”
“What’s wrong with my mum, though?” Finlay said. “Why hasn’t she said?”
“She did,” Zane said. “She had an obstruction. They fixed it, but she needs to recover from the surgery.”
“Yes, but what kind of obstruction?”Finlay asked. “An obstruction can be cancer. I looked it up.”
How was he meant to handle this? He said, “Can we table that for a minute?”
“What does that mean?” Finlay asked.
“We set it aside,” Zane said, “until we finish this.”
