Story Time

Bo heaved a sigh of relief and lifted his head off the ground. “That was close.”

“Bo! Lay back down before they come out again! “Henri hissed.

“Relax,” Bo said getting to his feet and rubbing his nose. “They won’t be out till Max and Lee come home.”

“And how do you know that?” She sat up tentatively, eyes never straying from the bedroom door. “They’ve never gone to sleep in the afternoon before.”

“Sure they have. Well they used to, before the move. Just don’t worry about it,” Bo picked up his battered practice sword and started up the steps.

“What-? Are you crazy? Get back here!” She whisper yelled.

Bo hauled himself up the first step then turned to fix Henri with a ‘you poor thing’ look. “Oh Henri. Poor, sweet, simple Henri. I was once like you, naive and stickler for the unwritten rules. For that devotion I once got 48 hours of face-on-the-ground time with my head shoved under the couch. I stayed there because I too thought, ‘Oh no! I shant move or they will surely notice thee.’ I lay there for two days thinking at any moment I would be picked up, dusted off, and lovingly placed into Adam’s arms. On the third night I had enough, got up, made my way to his room, as I had the previous nights, but come morning I stayed put. And do you know what happened?”

“I don’t appreciate the mockery, Bo,” she crossed her arms and glared at him.

“Get this… nothing. Nothing! Seriously, nothing happened. So much nothing that I began leaving myself in plain sight around the house and moving around when no one was watching. Sometimes I would be picked up and placed back in Adam’s room, but most of the time I was just left wherever I was. I guess everyone assumed Adam had left me out or something. It was kind of fun, at first, but also a shot to the ego knowing I wasn’t that big a deal… huh, go figure?”

“But Dad just said something about seeing you,”

“I promise you they won’t come out until Max and Lee come home. Then they’ll think the kids picked us up. Now are you coming with me or staying put?”

Henri wrung her paws and kept looking between Bo and the bedroom, so Bo shrugged and went back to climbing the stairs. Halfway up he heard a reluctant groan as she began her ascent.

Waiting for Henri at the top of the stairs Bo stood with a self-satisfying grin. “You may be nervous now, but trust me, no one will notice a thing.”

“All right, I trust you, Bo. But if this plan backfires, I’m coming after you with one of these,” she brandished her practice sword. “Without the padding.”

“Okay killer, you can beat me if it backfires, for now though lets put these in Max’s closet. We can tuck them behind some old toys and junk.”

They put away the swords, burying them behind some boxes containing Adam’s old clothes and toys. As Bo began shutting the closet door Henri asked from behind him, “Bo, did Mom and Dad really used to sleep in the middle of the day a lot?”

“Yep,” Bo said. “Almost religiously.”

She stood there a while, not moving, just thinking. Bo climbed up the bed and laid back on a pillow closing his eyes, after a while Henri joined him on the bed. Bo could feel her just sitting across from him thinking.

“What was the family like before I came to be?” she asked after a long while. Bo cracked one eye open and contemplated her question. “We’ve never really talked about it have we?” He opened both eyes and looked at her thoughtfully. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything, I suppose. I don’t know much except what I’ve seen for myself. Mom and Dad always working or busy, hardly seeing Adam at all. Max seems to be the one taking care of Lee most of the time. It’s not bad really, so I guess I never really understood why Max has so many Fears.” Henri settled back and propped herself up on her elbows.

“First off, Max is incredibly sensitive to other’s emotions,” Bo began. “Sensitive to his parents’ moods, and changes in the family environment. Mom and Dad are not here a lot, which he sometimes resents. But second, and probably most important, Max is diagnosed with something called Night Terror Syndrome.”

Henri’s jaw had dropped so far she looked like a ball python about to eat a tasty meal. “I never knew!” She managed after a few seconds. Then, recovering, she spit fired a fast volley of questions. “What is that? Is it as bad as it sounds? Who knows about it? Lee doesn’t know, does she? Does Adam know? Have you told Ruby? What-”

“Whoa! Whoa there, Henri.” Bo waved his paws frantically to fight off the interrogation. “Give me a second to explain will ya?” Henri did her best to control her curiosity, but just barely as she fidgeted and squirmed for him to continue.

“Night Terror Syndrome is exactly as it sounds. He’s afflicted with nightmarish dreams anytime he goes to sleep when he’s the slightest bit upset. Mostly brought on by stress and anxiety. It really started after we moved. New place, new school, new group of kids, mom and dad gone more often than they were home, and added responsibility taking care of Lee after Adam left. Any one of those things is enough to upset a regular kid. For extra sensitive, shy, Max, it was torture. I never worked so hard in my entire time with Adam. Before the move, when I was with Adam, it was completely different.”

“How was it different?” Henri asked, tilting her head.

“Well, as you know I was given to Adam when he was born and came to almost instantly. Back then we lived in a much bigger house, both Mom and Dad had better jobs. Mom even stopped working as a schoolteacher for a few years after Adam was born. Dad worked as a ‘senior account manager’. I have no clue what that is, but it paid a lot. Sadly he was extremely unhappy. I heard him and Mom talking plenty of times about how it was mindless and soul sucking, yadda yadda yadda. To his credit he never took his frustrations out on his family. He would come home tired and put out, but he would smile warmly at Adam and Mom and give them big kisses. Adam would sometimes hold me up and he’d plant one on my forehead too,” Bo chuckled at the memory.

“Dad stayed with that job for many years,” Bo continued, his eyes glazing over with memories. “The plan was to build up a savings, a substantial one, and when Adam was in school he’d get a better job. As Adam went to first grade and Mom back to work, Dad decided his calling was in real estate, selling houses.”

“Was he any good at it?” Henri asked, looking perplexed.

“I think so. But from what I understand people just weren’t buying houses, something about a market crash? He made money when he sold a house, but he sometimes went weeks, even a month, without selling a single house. Luckily with Mom’s job and their savings, it wasn’t really a problem. He was happy with the job and we were living comfortably. The only Fears I faced at that time were from Adam’s random nightmares, nothing difficult at all…” Bo smiled wistfully at the thought, “I was spoiled indeed.”

“After four years of ‘feast or famine’, as Dad called it, the parents were ‘pleasantly surprised’ to find Mom pregnant with Max. Adam was 10. And everyone was excited for this new bundle of joy, but money became tight. Mom had to take time off but she couldn’t leave for more than a month with Dad’s inconsistent income. Max was left with Grandma and Grandpa, or with friends most of the time. I guess the savings dried up pretty quickly and the decision was made Dad would quit real estate. He got a job as a car salesman for a couple of years where he did a little better actually. Then, a few years later, another surprise bundle showed up.” Bo winked at Henri.

“Lee was born,” She said ruefully, her eyes shifting downward, head sinking low.

“Hey? Why the face?” Bo leaned in close putting a paw on her shoulder.

“I have a feeling this is where the story goes from bad to worse,” she answered.

“What? No, no, no, no. If you think this is a sad story, I’m telling it wrong.”

“But you just said Dad had to switch jobs, twice! Mom had to work when Max was still a baby, and they constantly needed money. It doesn’t sound like another mouth to feed would be good news.” Impossibly, her sunk even further down her chest.

Bo scooted closer and put his arm around her shoulder. “Listen kid, I was just streamlining the story of how we ended up here. Through this whole time there was laughter, love and happiness. Our family loved spending time together, whether going on walks in parks, playing board games or sports, and of course bedtime stories almost every night! Love flowed through the house and was a part of every aspect. When Max was born, yeah it got tight with money, but money has nothing to do with love. And when Lee was born… I’d never known Mom and Dad to glow with so much pride at the sight of their new daughter. Lee’s giggles filled the house and made everyone smile and laugh with her.”

Henri finally began to smile, “So Lee wasn’t a strain Mom and Dad?”

“Not at all!” Bo exclaimed. “Don’t you know where her name came from?”

“Where?” Henri asked her head lifting slightly.

“Emilee was named after Mom’s favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, with a slight variation in her name for Grandpa Lee. Her and Dad used to quote a particular poem at each other all the time. I wonder if I still remember it… I believe it was called That I Did Always Love:

‘That did I always love, I bring thee proof: That till I love, I did not love enough.

That I shall love alway, I offer thee, That love is life, And life hath immortality.

This, dost thou doubt, sweet? Then have I, Nothing to show, But Calvary.’

“I used to hear that poem everyday. Mom and Dad would recite it to one other just to make each other smile. It was their own special poem and they decided to name their daughter, their third child in a time when money was exceptionally tight, after the poet that makes them fall in love all over again, every time they hear it.”

Henri was all smiles now as she looked up at Bo and beamed. “Thanks Bo, I needed to hear that.”

“No problem,” he said as he pushed her playfully to her side. “Now do you want to hear the rest or not?”

“Yes please, Mr. Bo” Henri sat cross-legged and propped her elbows on her knees, head placed firmly in her paws.

“By the time Lee was born another decision was made, this time to move. The old house, as much as they loved it and the memories it contained, was costing too much to keep. So they sold the house and moved here. It’s smaller, and far enough away Mom needed to quit her old job, but it’s a good house in a decent neighborhood. The real problems began when the economy went bad just after the move.”

“Wait, what? What is that? What’s the economy?”

“The economy is how much money and jobs are available. At one point that’s all I heard Mom and Dad talking about. I think a lot of people began losing their jobs, including Dad. He looked real hard but the only jobs he could find were working part-time in stores. Luckily, Mom found the job she has now as a teacher’s assistant in a school downtown. It doesn’t pay nearly as well as her last job though. Since then Dad has been constantly working two jobs, sometimes three.”

“That’s awful, I didn’t realize he had two jobs… No wonder he’s always tired.”

“I don't’ think Lee or Max know either, “ Bo continued, “but I’ve over heard the parents mention it a couple of times at night. Things got easier after Adam moved off to college. Max was so excited to get his own room back--”

“Hold on!” Henri waved her arms, “Max and Adam shared a room?”

“Where do you think he slept in this house? He was only 14 when we moved. They had a bunk bed and everything, but I was Max’s by that time. He really stepped up the four years before he left. He took care of Max and Lee, while keeping up his school work and managing to become a spectacular athlete getting a partial scholarship in baseball.”

“Hence all the old ball caps and jerseys,” Henri said nodding her head slowly.

“Exactly. Things lightened up after he left, enough so that Mom and Dad made their third and final big decision, Dad would go back to college. He wants a usable degree in something he’s always enjoyed, technology. Now he only works two jobs part-time, but takes classes online. Max is old enough to help with Lee, and she’s turning into a great kid, thanks to you as well.”

“Thanks Bo, but I’m confused… Why did it take so long for me to be with Lee? She was nearly five when I came to be.”

“Ah, well after Adam left is when Lee began Kindergarten. She was teased for always wearing Adams old baseball hats or t-shirts. It was the first time she encountered kids being mean and she didn’t understand why. She also didn’t really have any of her own toys. They were mostly hand-me-downs. On her birthday you were given to her and she loved you so completely you showed up that night.”

“I remember that night… I met you then as well.”

“Yup, and you’ve been learning from my valuable tutelage every since. “ Bo said with a smile and leaned back on the pillows, paws behind his head.

“So… maybe this is just a little hiccup for our family?” She asked, a spark glinting in her eye. “Dad is learning more, and Mom is a solid rock.”

“Yup, it’s no problem. Our family is doing great and nothing is going to pull us a part,” he said through a loud yawn.

“All right, sleepy bear. I get it, I’m going. Enjoy your nap.”

“I will. You should take one yourself.” With a final wave Henri hopped down the bed and padded out the door. Bo smiled at all the pleasant memories he had just relived, as he drifted off to sleep. He truly believed what he said to Henri, this was just a little hiccup for their family. Max would grow out of his nightmares eventually, and with the help of the Community he was determined to see him to that point.