Here come the Knights.

It was almost like a deja-vu, since it was my third time standing by the entrance to welcome the parents of one of the girls to our house. Beside me, Alice let out a long, resigned sigh. She was ready for whatever came, but…

“I just hope they don’t cause trouble for everyone else.”

“You think they would?” I asked her.

“Not for the sake of causing trouble, obviously, but… yeah.”

I don’t know if it went for or against my better judgement, but I found myself echoing her sigh in both tone and sentiment.

The car that came in was, without a doubt, the most iconic and expensive one of the lot parked in front of our garage. In fact, the car alone was probably at least ¼ of the whole house, and that was me lowballing it and hoping it wasn’t more. It was A P. 911 in brilliant silver. A two seater western sports car, as I remember Alice telling me her dad favored those. And maybe it’s because she also told me about it, but I think I could tell that one of the rear wheels looked newer than the others.

Alice’s parents parked and walked out of the car. Unlike most of the other girls’ parents, Mr. And Mrs. Knight are both a lot older. They’re barely over and under their 60s, unlike the others which are closer to their 40s. Mr. Knight had let his hair gray out, but Mrs. Knight seemed to have recently dyed hers in full black. The two of them are of very similar height, fairly average. They’re taller than me, but not like that’s saying much. Mr. Knight is on the overweight side, though mainly with a big front belly. Mrs. Knight was slimmer, though not by much. I’d say that their bodies spoke more of a lack of exercise than of overindulgence in anything. They dressed sharply, much like Noelle’s parents. Mrs. Knight also wore plenty of jewelry.

I tried to hold back my judgment when I saw them walking up to us with their eyes on the house rather than us. It was clear they were… appraising it in a very specific way.

“Mom, dad. Welcome,” Alice said with a smile, hugging one after the other. For all her worries and complaints, she does love her family.

“How’s life so far as an independent woman, sweetie?” her mother asked, smiling back and cupping Alice’s cheek. “I know it’s only been a few days, but how are you handling everything?”

“It’s been smoother than I expected,” Alice said. “I can already see us getting used to things soon enough.”

“There’s not a big supermarket nearby, is there?” her dad asked. “You need to keep a shopping list so you won’t forget something after coming back all this way.”

Alice nodded and looked back to me. “That’s a good idea.”

“It is,” I agreed. “Mr. Knight, Mrs. Knight, welcome. I heard from Alice that you had an issue with a wheel. Are you feeling alright?”

Mr. Knight shook my hand firmly before he held his shoulder and rotated it. “Would’ve been no trouble if I hadn’t turned 61 recently. I swear, the years sneak up on you.”

“I offered to help, but you wouldn’t let me,” Mrs. Knight said.

“Mom, you get tired after a minute of cranking the jack,” Alice told her.

“Thank you, sweetie,” her dad said. “If I tell her that, she gets mad at me!”

Mrs. Knight scoffed, but didn’t argue.

“What caused the flat tire?” I asked.

“Oh, just me being stupid…” the man groaned. “I dropped a nail in the garage the other day, couldn’t find it, then it turned up today poking a hole in the wheel.” He shook his head, frustrated. “Sorry we’re late, Oliver.”

“I hope we didn’t delay anything,” Mrs. Knight said.

I shook my head. “Not at all. In fact, the barbecue is almost ready.”

“Oh, that’s great to hear! I’m starving, actually,” the man said with a good-natured laugh.

“Please, come in. Would you like something to drink?” I offered.

“Oh, mom! Diana makes an incredible whiskey sour! You’ll love it!” Alice said.

As we led the older couple into the house, Mr. Knight finally asked me, “So, how was it that you got hold of this house?” He was asking for confirmation from my own mouth, since Alice had already told him the story.

“Luck, mostly,” I admitted. “Happened to meet Luke Allen and helped him with some stuff. I ended up working for him, and when I mentioned I was looking for a house, he gave me this as advance payment.”

I am very much aware of how shady this all sounds, but even if I wanted to lie and make something else up, which I don’t, I can’t think of anything that would be any more believable.

“And what exactly did you help Luke Allen of all people with?” Mrs. Knight asked. “No offence, Oliver, but I can’t imagine what a man like him would need help with.”

“Me neither,” I said, smiling at her to show I didn’t take offence. “It was random chance. I saw a woman getting assaulted and her purse stolen. I caught the guy and took the woman to the hospital. She turned out to be Mr. Allen’s girlfriend.”

“Ah,” both Mr. and Mrs. Knight exclaimed. “Yes, that makes more sense,” Mrs. Knight said.

“Still…” Mr. Knight looked around the house. “Some people do have cash to burn…”

“That’s the newest 911 model, isn’t it, dad?” Alice asked him. “Didn’t it come out two months ago?”

“...” Mr. Knight groaned. “Point taken.”

I swallowed a sigh. So far everything was going well. It wasn’t a secret to me that Alice’s parents were the type to believe money should be top priority. The type to believe that, so long as you had economical stability, everything else would be fine. Can’t say I blame them, and I see the logic, of course. But there’s a point where it’s not about ‘stability,’ but about having more than you need.

Then again, who am I to talk about wanting more than you need? Better keep my mouth shut.

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