Story Two: Elephants. (Work in Progress)

Elephants.

I like them.

Even though they are so so big! Bigger than I am, bigger than Ma and Pa and me and Sister and Brother all put together longways and sideways. Even if there were ten of us, I don’t think we would make one big huge elephant!

Pa took us to the zoo today, that’s how I know. That’s how I know elephants are huge huge huge! So big I couldn’t wrap my arms around one if I tried with all the might I have in my whole body. And that’s a lot, because I am very strong!

The zoo has a lot of animals, but the elephants are my favourite. They are grey, which is my favourite color, and they have big noses that they can pick things up with. I wished one would pick me up and carry me around the city, like Ma used to when we played aeroplanes when I was small.

Today, it is the anniversary, and instead of being sad, Pa says we should smile and see animals and be happy for all the things that still do exist, instead of thinking of all the things that do not anymore. Pa even let us pick out a stuffed animal from the gift place at the end of the zoo, and I picked out a big stuffed elephant! I named him Colossal, because one time I heard Ma tell me that means big.

When we got home, after the zoo, I ran around in circles and I make sounds like the elephant and Sister laughs and Brother stomps his feet because he is grumpy because his tooth is hurting. It’s not even a tooth! It’s his mouth-pink, and I don’t know how his tooth can be hurting when he doesn’t have a tooth there. Ma said the same happened to me when I was little, but I guess I don’t remember. Or maybe I’m just not a wuss-pants like my stupid Brother.

I love Brother. We play sometimes, and when we do it’s fun, even though he likes being grumpy, and I like to be happy.

Sometimes Brother asks me why I smile so much, and says how it must hurt my face all the time to be always crinkling it. I tell him that it feels nice, and I like the crinkles, and he just punches me in the arm and Sister says don’t do that!

Sister and I are the best of friends.

But different friends than friends at my school, because we have the same blood, Pa says.

I am a big boy now, and I just graduated kindergarten and moved up because I now go to the First Grade. I started school three days ago, and Pa said we can skip today because of the anniversary, and the teachers would understand, and that’s how come we got to go to the zoo and see the animals.

My friends at school seem nice, but some of them are quiet and I don’t know why, so I go up to them and I ask if they want to play or colour or be happy with me. Some of them say yes and we become Best Friends, and some of them are like grumpy Brother and make faces, and I think they have more face crinkles than I do with their sad mouths than I do with my happy mouth.

Sister wants to go to school with me, but Pa says no, and I say no now too because I think she is too little and might get hurt. Some kids are mean and push girls in the sandbox and I don’t want Sister to get hurt like they do. Even though Sister punches harder than anyone I know! But whenever Neighbour Boys yell at us when we are out side of the door, I make sure Sister stands on the other side of the Bullies, just in case they attack. Pa says we shouldn’t go out side without him, because Bullies could be looking over shoulders we can’t see, but sometimes Sister and I sneak like Daylight Spies.

 

I met a new friend yesterday when it was Tuesday, which is two days before today is. She is a girl, which is why I said “she” and I learned that’s the best way to describe a girl.

 

School is very short, I think, and I wish it lasted longer. I get up at eight on the clock and get out from school at one on the clock, but then we have Extra Calculators. Pa says I say it wrong but I say it like that because it is more fun and makes me think of plus signs. I like plus signs because I like math.

Extra Calculators aren’t math, though. It’s more other fun things that are not in the same building as school school, but we learn other things like how to stomp our feet all at the same time and how to raise one hand over our heads at the sky and shout fun things loud loud loud!

I really like the loud-shouts, because I like to talk because I like how the voice men tickle my throat when they crawl up and out of my mouth.

They let us shout a lot, but sometimes we have to stay really still and really quiet, and that’s the only game that I get grumpy. Pa told me to hold in my grumpy-bugs, though, because if I let them out, the Teachers will be mad and I will get in trouble, and then the frowning sad faces happen.

Brother doesn’t get to do Extra Calculators yet, because he is too little, and Sister doesn’t get to because she is a girl. She is too young also. Brother is in kindergarten days and Sister’s years are lower than that. But I just know that not-boys can’t do Extra Calculators.

On the day before the weekend (that’s Friday!) I saw two girls at Extra Calculators, but they were not screaming and stomping. They were being quiet, though, like we sometimes are, but they were quiet all the time instead of just some of the time and they just sat in a corner. I couldn’t tell why they were there, but they looked grumpy and I felt bad. I wanted to talk to them, but the Teachers gave me mad faces, and so I went quiet and stomped with the other not-girls.

Even after stomping for hours, I don’t get tired when I go home. Pa says he has to rain me in like a fish. Real me in like a fish? Something about fish, I don’t always understand what Pa speaks but he sure makes my giggles show out.

Pa tells me if I have energy, I should make something with my hands, and I ask what? He tells me anything I want, and let my brain imagine free open thoughts. He tells me I can do anything and the world is an oyster (those are little shells in the sea. I saw one once when we visited the beach when Ma could walk with us.)

I tell Pa I want to make another Ma, because that would be fun, and Pa doesn’t have happy crinkles anymore, and then I laugh and say I am joking even though I am not. He pats my head, and I see the crinkles again and I know this is good.

I ask Pa why I can’t have more friends inside the house, and why I can’t see friends unless I’m at school. He says because the world is not always happy. I do not know what he means, because when I am not happy I just smile and things fix, but he says not everyone has this Magic Power. And then I smile more crinkles because I realize I am Magic, and then the giggles explode in the air!

Pa says we can make compromise and I can go to one friend house, but only if it is close and only if I stay close to him on the walk. Pa doesn’t let us walk around the city because he says there are Bullies and Spies and life will be sad if I meet people like those. I do not tell him about the Bullies that Sister and I see when we sneak out and pretend to be Daylight Spies.

I tell Pa I want to visit the girl I met the day before the weekend, because she seemed nice and very pretty, and he says okay. He asks if I know where she lives, and if she is expecting me. I have to put my hand up to my chin, like Pa does when he thinks too many brain-pictures, and I say no and then yes. He asks me which is true, yes or no? And I make an almost frown-face, but then I have a plan!

I tell him that I know where she lives and she will be happy to see me even on surprise-times. I don’t actually know where she lives, but I pretend I do so that we can go for a walk, and I think I can pretend enough that we find her. The clock says it is four on the clock, and I think that is a good time for a surprise-time visit. The moon isn’t exploring the star-cities yet, which means we can explore our city.

Pa looks not happy as normal, but he takes my hand anyway and the door is free and open! Outside is very grey, which is my favorite colour (like the elephants), so I do not mind. Our house has always been gray, which I like, and most of the other things are grey grey grey.

Pa stops and looks at all the grey, and maybe he thinks it is pretty too, so I do not say anything. Then we walk and he holds my hand tighter so that it almost hurts, but not too much. Does he think I will fall off? Does he think I will disappear and be invisible like Ma? Does he think I will run from him and find a new Pa? Because I won’t, I love Pa.