[color=FF4500]“Dad, I’m home!”[/color] Sam called into the house.  Her voice echoed through the front room, past the kitchen, up the stairs, around the bedrooms, and finally bounced off the closed door of her father’s studio.  A moment of silence in response let her know he was sealed in and busy with his latest project.

Sam sighed as she slipped her shoes off.  If he’d been lost in his art all day, he probably hadn’t eaten again.  Or taken the list Mom had left him and gone shopping.  She carefully padded up the stairs to drop her bag off in her room, then made her way toward the closed door to his art studio.

[color=FF4500]“Dad?”[/color] she asked, not particularly loudly.  No reply came.  [color=FF4500]“I’m borrowing the car to run to the store, okay?  I’ll have your card, too, so… Well, you can’t really leave if I have the car anyway, huh,”[/color] she mumbled quietly to herself as she turned away.  She poked into her parents’ bedroom just far enough to grab his wallet and the car key off the dresser, then went back downstairs to grab Mom’s shopping list off the fridge.

The door opened just as she was slipping her shoes back on.  Diana pushed her way in, volleyball bag in one arm and schoolbag in the other.  Their eyes met, and the sisters shared a smile.

[color=FF4500]“Back early today?”[/color] Sam asked, tapping the heel on her sneaker to help it settle.

[color=00CED1]“A little.  Coach said she was feeling unwell, so she cut practice short.  Back late?”[/color]

[color=FF4500]“The festival planning meeting ran long.  Dad’s not making a sound, so I’m running to the store.  Go ahead and shower up; start on your homework, too.  I’ll be back in half an hour or so to start dinner.”[/color]

[color=00CED1]“Thanks, Sam.  Heard anything from Mom?”[/color]

[color=FF4500]“Nope.  And you know what they say-”[/color]

[color=00CED1]“- ‘No news is good news.’  Yep.  As long as nothing sudden appears to keep her at work.”[/color]

[color=FF4500]“Right?  How hard can it be for a major headline to not happen in the next two hours?”[/color]

Diana slipped up the stairs and Sam stepped out the door.  Dad’s car was parked in the driveway, a two-door compact that somehow still ran–largely on miracles and spite by now.  He’d had the thing in college when he and Mom first started dating, for crying out loud.  But for all Sam complained about the old thing, it got the job done.  She liked that about it.  With a rumble and sputter, she backed the car out the driveway, pushed in the clutch, and started into town.