Page 71 of Sleeper: The Palisades Edition

If it’sbad parenting to let five-year-olds watchThe Karate Kidduring dinner on a school night, then Shane Miller is perfectly content to be a bad parent. He feels so guilty for letting his blue balls get the best of him during the class, I wouldn’t be surprised if he never makes Summer brush her teeth again. Lucky was so focused on the instructor that I don’t think he noticed when we weren’t paying attention.

I’m so focused on how cool Elisabeth Shue is in this movie that I don’t even realize how long Summer has been gone after saying she had to go to the bathroom. When she returns, she is silent and doesn’t make eye contact with anyone, but I notice her sneaking peeks at me out of the corner of her eyes. When I try to meet her gaze, she snaps her head back to the TV, frowning.

I get a sinking feeling in my gut.

After taking the dishes to the kitchen sink, I go to my room to have a look.

The top of my desk is completely empty, except for my perfumer’s organ, which is upright and closed.

That wouldn’t be a problem if it hadn’t been half-covered with twenty bottles of the roll-on perfume oilthat I’d spent the past few days mixing and bottling and labeling.

I check the wastebasket beneath the desk—empty.

I check the wastebasket in my bathroom—no perfume bottles.

I check my closet, becausemaybe just maybeSummer decided to line them up in an orderly fashion on one of the shelves. Nope.

I check all of the drawers in the desk and dresser.

“What’s going on?” Shane asks from the doorway.

“Nothing. I need to talk to Summer.”

“Shit. What did she do?”

“It’s fine.” I go into the family room and find Summer sitting at the edge of the sofa, arms crossed, lower lip quivering, staring at the floor. I kneel on the floor in front of her. “Summer. Where did you put my perfume bottles?”

She shakes her head.

“Summer. I made those. Do you understand? I’m going to sell those in a store. That’s my job.”

“Your job is our nanny!”

“Yes, it is. But my other job is making perfume.”

“Oh, shit!” I hear Shane say from the kitchen.

I watch a solitary tear fall from Summer’s eye and then go to the kitchen. Shane is looking in the wastebin from under the sink. “They’re empty,” he says, holding one of the cylindrical bottles up. The label has a tomato sauce stain on it. “I think all the labels are messed up. I’m so sorry.”

I shake my head and calmly march over to the bathroom in the hallway. As soon as I open the door, I can smell my perfume oil in the sink.

I can hear Shane telling Summer that she’sgrounded. I can hear him tell her that she doesn’t get any dessert tonight, that she doesn’t get to go to her friend’s party this weekend. I can hear Summer saying there were too many bottles on my desk and clutter is bad. And my first instinct is to go in there and defend Summer.

I put my hand on Shane’s arm. “Shane, it’s not her fault. I should have locked my stuff away or put a lock on the door like you said.”

“Summer, go to your room.” His voice can be so commanding when he’s talking to his daughter.

“But clutter in the room makes clutter in your head!”

“Go brush your teeth and get ready for bed. Now.”

“Shane.”

“I will pay to replace everything, obviously,” he tells me as Summer skulks out of the room.

“It’s really not that big of a deal. I can mix the oils again, I can order more labels and bottles. It’ll just delay my store opening for a week or so.”

We both look over to see that Lucky is on the verge of tears, watching us. “Can I finish watching the movie?”