Excerpt: The Blue Door

“You know,” Anne said around a mouthful of food, “this house would be a wonderful little cottage if it weren’t for that odd blue metal door on the front, and this hideous purple wallpaper here in the kitchen.”
“It’s not really purple anyway,” said Matt. “It’s just blue and red dots all crammed together.”
“Well, whatever,” said Anne, sticking her tongue out at Matt. “I think it’s gross. Especially someplace where you have to eat.”
“I thought girls liked purple,” said Matt slyly.
“It’s not purple; you said so yourself,” Shelley interjected.
“Listen, kids,” said Donna. “We’re going to have to avoid the fussing and fighting. And those bags of trash that you and those people from church hauled out – I want them all back in the house after dinner. We’ve got to go through them, see if there are any clues.”
“What?” said Jack. “That’s crazy! Do you want them all dumped back out on the floor too?”
“Don’t talk to mom that way,” growled Matt.
“Who died and made YOU dad?” said Jack. He choked on his burger, suddenly regretting his words.
“Nobody died,” Matt said bitterly. “Nobody at all.”
Shelley burst into tears. “I want my Daddy!” she bawled, falling into her mom’s arms.
Donna wept with her for a bit, stroking her hair. “We all do, honey. We all do. And we’ll get him back.” Her face grew hard. “And God help the person who gets in our way.”