our house! is a very very very tiny house! [attn. charlotte, erich]

[Damon]

There was a Discussion, initially, about how to expand the tinyhouse. Erich wanted to push the loft out over the porch so that it matched his own in size and scope. He didn't like that Melantha had the smallest room in the house, that she would have to sleep sideways over a six and a half foot drop, that she wouldn't have as much room to tuck and store things near her bed. But Melantha wouldn't allow the airiness of the porch, tiny as it is, to be disrupted; she didn't want the claustrophobia of a big heavy ceiling overhead, or the clunkiness of a room looming over the front of the tinyhouse. Even so, it took several back-and-forths before Erich was finally convinced that,

yes, this is what she wants,
no, she's not just being polite,
no, she doesn't want a big room (big being relative),
yes, this just fine. it is perfect.

And so: work begins. Erich does most of it. Melantha helps. Charlotte helps too -- really helps this time, because when Erich was building the tinyhouse most of her help, poor sheltered thing, consisted of holding not-too-heavy things in place and holding plans open and occasionally standing a long way away and telling Erich is something was straight or not. This time, though: this time Erich gets a hammer in her hand, gets a screwdriver in her hand, even gets a power drill in her hand a few times. Well, maybe not the last. Charlotte doesn't seem to like powered anythings.

Nevertheless, the work is done, the trips are made, the loft is expanded. After a lot of heaving and pulling, a small mattress goes up. Sheets, comforters. Melantha builds a shrine, which Erich, standing on the ladder with his forearms folded atop the loft floor, looks at curiously. He does not ask about the bowl. He understands the bowl, even if he doesn't quite understand the rug, or the candle, or the shrine as a whole.

They hang curtains. They saw a hole in the ceiling and they put a skylight in. No: two skylights, for symmetry and for light, though they also put sunreflecting, lightblocking shades in so the tinyhouse doesn't bake in the summer. They finish everything, and Erich frets, fret because there's no railing, what if she falls. Melantha dangles her legs. Erich

secretly

plans to sleep in lupus under her bed that night. Just in case. But: it is hard not to smile back from where he stands below her, arms folded, a toolbelt slung low around his hips.

"Now we've got a three-bedroom," he quips. "Pretty posh."