Fast-forward sequence, and then Debbie and Scott are in there with their girls. MPDP has them all open their eyes at once. Man, the younger girl looks exactly like Debbie. The older one looks more like her dad. Debbie says, "Oh my gosh!" Scott says it's so cool. Debbie says it's perfect. The girls seem a little overwhelmed. I still don't know which one's Hayley and which one's Kendall, so they'll just be the "older one" and the "younger one." (Which character came on the soap opera first? Heh. Please don't answer that. I don't care.) I think the older one is Hayley. Debbie asks the daughter she's holding what colour the flowers are. She says "pink," and agrees that it's the colour she wanted. She sets the kid down and MPDP crouches, pointing out the new bedding and headboards. Debbie says it's unbelievable and perfect. MPDP gets the older girl to give her five, but the younger one won't. Hee. Debbie gets the younger one to do it. MPDP: "I feel so dissed!" Scott: "You dissed Paige! You dissed Paige!" Aw, she's used to it. Debbie asks if the girls like it: "Are you gonna sleep in here now?" The younger shakes her head. Like I said, it's a parenting issue, not a decorating issue. Scott hugs them and calls them little monkeys, while Debbie complains that that was their deal. As Scott stands back up, the younger one falls on her bottom. Oof! She won't let her father pull her up. The older one says, "Daddy? They spilled a little paint over there." That's right, honey. The emperor's thing is swinging in the breeze. The adults all have a good adult chortle over that. Debbie says again that it's awesome. She adds that Ellen and Chuckles aren't going to like their room nearly this much.

Times like this I wish I was the sort to take a stiff drink. And by "times like this," of course, I mean pretty well every other room Hildi's done. Okay. Walls and ceiling, black. I don't have a problem with that. I painted my bedroom black when I was about twenty or twenty-one. But everything in it was white, or grey, or black, or silver. The walls were covered with black and white photos and postcards of old movie stars and other cool-looking women: Theda Bara, Billie Holiday, Rita Hayworth, Jane Jarboe, Sarah Bernhardt, Bessie Smith, Diamanda Galàs, etc. I think you can make a very beautiful and dramatic black room but (a) this ain't it and (b) these aren't the people to do it for. Come on, they're probably afraid of anything more commanding than light taupe. The carpet's still a most incongruous and conventional beige. I think Hildi just pretends floors aren't there when she can't dye them or replace them or whatever.