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His hand twitched on the knob, lips set in a thin line and puckered down towards his chin at the corners.
“Tell me you have the key.”
“What?!” Piccolo winced but kept his eyes straight ahead, fixated on the door. “What do you mean, ‘do I have the key?’ Of course I don’t have the key you said you had the key when we left for the supermarket!” Chichi’s voice grew more shrill with each word passing her lips. Piccolo’s ears rung.
Suri and Goten shifted from foot to foot behind him.
“Papa, I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry.”
Chichi’s foot found his ankle.
“Don’t talk to him like that.”
“Naw Mama it’s true,” Suri sighed, and Piccolo heard the chubby child set down the bag of food he held. “Papa, I’ve got the special ice cream in my bag. ‘S gotta go in th’ freezer.”
Piccolo closed his eyes, trying to remember what the key looked like. Maybe he could make a copy.
Chichi dropped her bags on the doorstep, bustling over to where they hid the spare key under the slab of sandstone that sat between the two little berry bushes under the kitchen window.
“Don’t bother, it’s not there.”
Piccolo pursed his lips. Goten coughed.
“Um… I got locked out yesterday ‘n’ I left the spare in my uniform pants’ pocket.” Out of the corner of his eye, Piccolo saw Chichi straighten and close her eyes.
A long, low hum radiated from her lips.
Piccolo fiddled with the door a moment longer and conjured a key from memory. He shoved it into the lock, jiggled it, wiggled it around, and removed it after his initial failure. He tried a second. Then a third.
The sun was actually quite warm. Suri was beginning to whine and tug on his pant leg.
“Iffn the coconut milk ice cream’s gonna melt anyway can’t Tenny ‘n’ I just eat it?”
“No baby you’ll ruin your supper.” Chichi tutted about, looking from window to window on the front of the house. “I never leave one open but maybe I did…” She hadn’t, he knew.
“Ma, can Pa ‘r me just bust down th’ door? It’s hot out here.”
“No one’s breakin’ down my door!”
She was going to hate his suggestion.
“The keys are on the kitchen table,” he began, moving closer to the window by the sink. “I could just. Put my arm through the window and get the key.”
“Don’t be doing none of that freaky arm-extension crap in my house.”
“Window or door, and I can replace the window glass a lot easier than the door.”
Chichi turned to press her back against the brick, sliding down the wall to sit in the dirt. She hid her face in her knees and gestured in what could only be defeat as she gave in to the only solution remaining to them if they were going to prevent Suri and Goten from devouring their entire shopping trip in a single sitting.
Piccolo gritted his teeth and put his fist through the window.
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