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“You are what you eat!” announced Rosa pushing her salad topped with tuna towards the centre of the table.

Sybil looked at her over the rim of her glasses, something she decided to wear even though she had perfectly good eyesight, after being told by one of the mothers, that it made her look studious. “It’s tuna, little one,” she said quietly, “you love tuna.”

“Yes mummy, I do. But we’ve had it 500 times.” As soon as those words left her mouth, Rosa shot a look over at her aunt Elizabeth who had joined them for dinner. “100 times,” Rosa corrected herself and shot another look over at Elizabeth who said nothing but steadily ate her salad enjoying every mouthful. Much better than what she had at home, and it was made even more pleasurable by Jeremy’s absence. He was on a business trip. Though no one in the Blau family knew what sort of business trip it was.

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” shouted Rosa in her usual manner as she opened the front door of the nest and flew in slamming the door shut behind her. She ran right into her father who as usual was standing a few feet back from the door. As she did so, he wrapped his wings around her. “Daddy guess what?” she asked stepping back to look around her father’s portly figure to see if her mother was standing in her usual place, barring her entry into the kitchen before giving her at least a kiss. But her mother wasn’t in her usual place.

“What Rosa?” asked George, but for the moment Rosa had been sidetracked. She didn’t like change much, and to her Sybil not standing guard over the entrance to the kitchen was change.

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Shouted Rosa running out on to the deck where she stood next to her father as he lay on his chair reading the Sandpit Times. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Rosa repeated, “can you buy me a farm?”

George turned, lowered his sunglasses and looked at his youngest daughter. “Good afternoon, young lady,” he said calmly pretending he didn’t hear Rosa’s request. But Rosa wasn’t having any of it. She stood there with her wings holding onto the side of the lounge chair rocking on her feet. She wasn’t going anywhere until she had heard the answer she expected from George.

The Blau family were in for a shock. They had recently returned from visiting New Jersey in the dead of winter, just so Elizabeth could explain to Rosa the difference between seeing snow in a photograph and actually being in snow, when they woke up one morning to a vast winter wonderland.

“Look!” shouted Rosa flying into her parents’ bedroom and bouncing on their bed which was something she had been told many times not to do, “look daddy, mummy, look outside. The beach is gone.”

It was those last four words that shook her parents out of their deep slumber, believing that while they were asleep a giant tsunami had hit North Topsail Beach and washed all the sand out to sea, on its way to Africa. They screamed and jumped out of their bed. Rosa didn’t know her excitement would cause her parents to panic. She tried to make the best of it.

“It’s not Tuesday!” Rosa announced as she walked into the kitchen where Julia was busy preparing dinner.

“I know that, Rosa. I can read.”

“Then why are we having tacos?”

Julia laughed. “Just because it’s Thursday doesn’t mean we can’t have tacos.”

“Yes, it does. We are only allowed to have tacos on Tuesday. That’s why when they invented the calendar they made it Taco Tuesday. You’re not allowed to have tacos on any other day.” “Ha, you’re wrong,” replied Julia, busily cutting up tomatoes and onions for the salsa. “But that doesn’t mean you have to have some of it. You can just have the meat without the taco.”

“What’s the meat?”

“Chicken,” replied Julia knowing that would upset her sister, and it did.

Rosa yawned.

“Time to go to bed young lady?” asked George who closed the book he was reading to her. Rosa yawned again and lay her head on her father’s shoulder.

“Yes daddy, I think so. I feel very tired.”

“Well, you’ve had a very busy day, haven’t you?”

Rosa nodded and closed her eyes. “Yes daddy, but you know what the best part of the day was?”

George smiled. He had an idea, but he had to ask. “What was the best part of the day?”

“Right now, daddy, when you read me a chapter from Little Women. The book is much better than the movie though.”