“I hear you,” said Barb.
“She got brought home by the cops. I’m not trying to raise the child of someone who’s in trouble with the law in that way,” said Elena.
“Oh, I know. She called in here the other week and practically chewed my head off.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“The tuition is too high. And I said, ‘Listen, lady, maybe that’s something you should’ve thought about before you took a job that didn’t pay you enough for all that you need,’” said Barb.
“Oh, my word. I know I’m not trying to be a free car service.”
“You know it takes about a thousand dollars to get your car out of the impound.”
“It does not!”
“It does too. So, it looks like you got yourself into some charity work.”
Elena rolled her eyes. “Even a Christian woman has her limits.”
Barb laughed and put her hand on Elena’s arm. Adam observed this from his house. The fluorescent lights made the inside of the yellow plastic house glow. More children arrived. Elena nodded while she was talking and kept talking while she walked to the door. Barb laughed and waved, then crossed her arms.
Later, when most of the children had arrived, Adam became involved in a game of house. Julie and Tessa were the mom and the dad and Emma was the baby. Adam was the dog. He sat by the box of toys and watched them make dinner. He chewed on his paws and tried to chew on his haunches but couldn’t reach. Mommy and Daddy served Baby some dinner and they all ate the invisible food with their hands. Adam crawled over to them and said, “I love you,” and then pawed at the air. The girls giggled and said, “Bad doggie, go eat out of your bowl.”
“But I love you!” he said.
“Doggie!” said the dad, and the girls giggled.
Adam looked at Emma the baby. “I’m your sister and I love you!” he pleaded. “Rrruff, I’m your sister, I’m your sister!”
“What are you doing, Adam? Bad doggie, go eat your food,” said Tessa.
Adam pawed at the table and at Emma and said, again, but now in a dog voice, “Ri’m rour ristrer rand roi ruff roo!”
He began to pant frantically and flail on the floor.
“Doggie, no!” said the girls.
“I’m a good doggie,” he cried. “Woof!”
“Miss Barbara!” said Julie. Adam’s eyes widened.
“Woof,” he said. He returned to his dog bowl and growled.
Miss Barbara approached the scene. “Yes, Julie?”
“Miss Barbara, Adam is supposed to be the dog and eat his food from the bowl, but he keeps saying he’s Emma’s sister, but he’s still acting like a dog and he’s a boy anyway so even if he could be her sister he should be her brother,” said Julie.
“Ruh-roh,” whispered Adam.
“Adam,” said Miss Barbara. “Adam, come.”
Adam crawled to her and panted. He sat up on his haunches and put his paws out in front of his chest and cocked his head to the side. “Roi ruff roo,” he said.
“Eew!” said the girls.
“Adam, stand up,” said Miss Barbara.
Adam panted.
“Adam, stand up.”
He stood up.
“Come with me.”
The girls giggled.
As Miss Barbara walked him to the other side of the day-care center, she said, “Now, I don’t know what it’s like being an only child, but a dog is not the same thing as a sibling. Do you understand? You can’t play the doggie and say you’re someone’s sister, it makes you look disturbed. Do you understand? You might not ever understand if you never have a sibling, but that is a sacred bond and a bond that cannot be shared with an animal. It’s perverse.”
She sat him down at a table and put a coloring book in front of him. “Now I want you to color these pictures in and do a good job.”
When she left, he started to mumble “Roi ruff roo” under his breath. “Roi ruff roo.”
The image Adam was asked to color was an Easter bunny. The bunny was holding a basket out to him. The basket had eggs in it. The bunny had no background, but he was wearing a waistcoat. Adam picked up a crayon at random and started rubbing it against the paper. It was soothing.
“Roi ruff roo,” he whispered, not to the bunny, and not to his family. His family. He looked up at them across the day-care center. He had been abandoned by his family for asking for a higher position. Now they were eating their imaginary food and explaining the events of their imaginary days. Adam continued coloring while he looked at them.
Eventually, they noticed. His sister, Emma, widened her eyes at him and thrust her head forward a few times. A challenge to fight. He sighed and put his cheek in his hand. Sigh. He looked back down at his coloring job of the Easter bunny. “I don’t love you bunny, no offense,” he said.
Barb was walking around the room with her arms crossed, surveying all that was hers. All of these children learning about life and social systems and appropriate behavior. Pretty much learning about how things are, and learning it under her gentle guidance. A small boy, Louie, ran past her and she said, “Slow down, Louie.” She smiled. So simple. It was all so simple. Separate the ones who are fighting, give light reprimands, subtle suggestions, firm suggestions. So simple.
• • •
Meanwhile, Jillian kept getting calls on her cell phone from the same number. She didn’t recognize the number and it made her nervous. She reached for a Pop-Tart and waited for Megan to go to the bathroom, then she checked her voicemail. It was the government, wanting to know when she’d schedule her court date, pay her fine, and bail her car out of the impound.
Megan looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She was a dick. Looking at herself there in the mirror, she knew she was a dick. Only a real dick would have such a lopsided face.
She
