Ten-year-old Max Slayter looked over at his little sister in disgust.
“Do we have to share a room?” Max knew the answer to his question but was compelled to ask at every available opportunity. He let out a loud sigh and tossed his box of stuff down to the floor with a weary resignation of a child with the weight of the world on their shoulders. Sitting on top of the box was Bo, a raggedy old brown teddy bear if ever there was one. The bear bounced with the impact but managed somehow to remain in his seat. Max was hot and sweaty from carrying stuff in and out all day and seeing his sister sitting there, happy as can be, annoyed him to no end.
A small slight girl with dirty knees, mismatched socks and shoes, and wearing a too big T-shirt, stuck her tongue out at Max. Lee, which is short for Emilee, sat on a couch in their empty living room drawing on her new doodle bear she had gotten for her birthday recently. The multicolored, tie-dyed bear in light blue denim overalls was already covered in little stick figures, rainbows, dinosaurs, all types of animals, and many different shapes. She had been doodling on the bear nonstop since they started unloading the cars and big moving truck. She was too little to really help and her parents were happy that it kept her out of the way.
“Yeah, do we have to share a room?” She said in a nasally mimicking voice, sweeping a lock of blonde hair which had escaped her ponytail back behind her ear. “Max is always talking in his sleep. He’ll keep me up.”
“Shut up! I do not!” Max shouted and stomped the floor. “Do too!” Lee raised her voice even louder.
“Knock it off, both of you!” Dad boomed from outside. The young siblings then proceeded to make silent but grotesque faces at one another, each trying to out do the other.
“Relax, bud,” Adam said coming in from outside. “It’s only for a couple of weeks before I’m off to college. Then you’ll get my room. It’s bigger anyway.” He said the last part in a whisper with a conspiratorial wink. Max beamed up at his older brother and left to go get more stuff.
“What about me?” Lee said her voice taking on a pathetic whimper she hoped would garner some sympathy. Adam, her savior, her protector, was leaving her soon. How could she survive with only Max as her older sibling? For added effect she tried squeezing out some tears.
“What about you, squirt?” Adam said, taking a seat on the couch next to her. “You’ll gets our own room too when I leave. Isn’t that what you just said you wanted?” He bent his head to try and see what she was busy filling in. It was a T-Rex.
“No. I mean, yeah, I guess. But that’s not what I’m talking about. What’s… What’s going to happen to me when you leave? Max doesn’t like me, he’ll be mean to me.” Real tears she didn’t have to force began leaking at the corners of her eyes.
“Hey now, squirt. Don’t think that. He loves you every bit as much as I, or Mom, or Dad does. He just doesn’t know how to show it, yet.” Lee gave a short snort to show what she thought of that. Adam couldn’t help but chuckle. “You know, I wasn’t the best brother when Max first came along.”
Lee looked up, fascinated by this revelation. “You weren’t?”
“Nope. I didn’t like the bald peanut looking thing that took all Mom and Dad’s attention away, not one bit. But after a while, with a little patience from both of us, I began to appreciate having him around. That’s all Max needs, a little time and patience. You’ll see, then he’ll truly understand how great a kid you are.” He put his big adult hand on her head and messed up her hair.
Lee looked away to hide her smile. Adam could always make her feel good, and noticed. He understood her in a way it was hard for her to express. No one had asked her opinion about moving. No one had thought to ask her what she thought of the new house. Well, she didn’t like either of them. She just didn’t know how to say it exactly. Sure she said on many occasions that she didn’t like moving, almost as many times as Max have asked about sharing a room with her. But when asked why, she could never find the right words. Usually she would end up shrugging and saying because she didn’t want to. This answer to an adult question is typically met with a sympathetic eye-roll and shake of the head. You’ll understand why, one day. Her parents would say. That was fine for them, but what about her? Would they ever understand why she didn’t want to move?
Often grown ups forget what it was like to be a child. Getting caught up in adult worries and concerns, they tend to minimize the troubles of a child compared to their own. For instance it seems a lot more important for an adult to get out the door in the morning quickly to get to work on time than it does to stop and look around for a child’s favorite toy that they’ve lost…again. Here, the toy is a much smaller problem for the adult, so they might consider it less important. However, it should be noted that when a child’s world revolves around precious few objects, these small and trivial matters to grown up, tend to take up a lot of space in child’s world.
“Can I?” Adam asked, reaching out for her bear. Lee hesitated a moment then handed over her canvas. “Thank you. What’s her name?”
“Henri,” Lee said excitedly.
“Henry? It’s a boy bear then?” Adam asked.
“No.” She said matter-of-factly. “Henri is short for Henrietta. She has a nick name like me.” Lee beamed with pride, having come up with her bear’s name all on her own.
“Oh, I see. You should tell people her name is Henri spelt with the letter ‘I’, then I think they’d get it easier.” Lee shrugged indifferently, but locked away that tip, a treasure to keep for always. “Please to meet you, Henri.” Adam continued. “I like your tattoos. May I add one?” Adam looked sideways down at his sister. Lee had her hands clasped over her mouth to hide her giggling, she nodded vigorously.
Adam began carefully drawing around her stick figures. She leaned over and propped up against his arm to get a good look at what he was doing. In no time her T-Rex had a big full body with terrifying jaws opened wide and drool flying out. Lee furrowed her brow. “But he isn’t a mean rex? He’s a Gentlemen-saurous Rex.”
“Ah,” said Adam. “Of course, how silly of me. I’lol just make a small adjustment…” Lee started giggling at his addition of top-hat and transformation of the drool into a party favor. “There. Now he is truly a Gentlemen-saurous Rex.”
Lee grabbed Henri and gave her a big hug. “Thank you, Adam! He’s perfect!”
“You’re welcome, squirt. Remember what I said about Max, just give him some time. He’ll come around.” Lee nodded but her face remained unconvinced. Adam chuckled and took his hat off, an old blue and orange Mets cap, and plopped it on her head backwards. “Come on, you can help me with some of my smaller stuff.”
Lee, having never been asked to help with anything that day, jumped off the bed flinging Henri behind her as she raced to catch up with Adam. As the echo of her heavy footfalls died away, the living room became silent once more. The only sounds came from the family unloading their stuff outside. Bo, the bear in Max’s box sat undisturbed and staring forward at Henri, the doodle bear toppled on to her side. Both bears were facing each other, their gazes almost contemplative. Bo, the old brown bear, blinked and turned his head to make sure they were alone. He then slowly raised one paw and gave a little wave of hello. Henri, however, being just a toy, didn’t respond. The old bear smiled; she was just be a toy now, but probably not for long.
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