Page 60 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas
And that’s where I saw my opening. Clearing my throat, I tried to sound cool and professional like Mama did whenever she was on one of her important, grown-up calls.
“About that...” I stalled, and I could already feel myself losing aura points, so I glanced over to my mother and Mr. Remy. Mama instantly caught my eye and waved.
She looked sohappy.
Like, I got that I was a kid, and there were a lot of things about the world that I didn’t understand, but I wasn’tstupid.
I knew that me being sick had taken a really big toll on Mama. Sometimes, I could hear her crying by my bed at night, and I’d pretend to be asleep because I knew if I roused, she would paste a smile on her face and pretend everything was okay. It had eased off when I started to get better, but Mama still had so much to deal with all on her own. Adult stuff that I couldn’t really help with, even if I really, really wanted to.
But when she was with Addy and Eva’s dad, all of that faded. It reminded me of when I was really young, back before I got sick, and everything was simpler. When I was a regular kid, and not “advanced for my age” or “wise beyond my years” or all the other fluffy ways people tried to say that the trauma from my cancer had made me different.
So, when I saw her so weightless, so supported, how could I not want that for her every day? Not just Christmas.
“About what?” Addy asked, and I realized I had kinda drifted off. Mama tended to do the same when she was deep in thought. It was a little bit embarrassing, but I liked that my mom and I were so similar. There were a lot of really mean people in the world, but she wasn’t one of them.
“This might be crazy, but I have an idea of how that could be possible.”
“Oh?” Addy asked, one of her eyebrows shooting up. I liked Addy a lot. She got how my brain worked more than any other kid I’d ever met, and she asked just as many questions as I did. It was hard not to feel like we’d actually grown up together sometimes.
“Yeah. But we’re gonna need an adult to help…”
Chapter 15
Jeannie
The Hair Ties that Bind
“Olivia,hand me one of those cloth hair ties I got sittin’ on the table, would you?” Jahmoni asked. I leaned forward from where I was sitting on the ground between her thick and very comfortable thighs, allowing her more room to move.
“Here you go!” Olivia said, handing over the baggie of ties that had been knocked forward a little, most likely when a couple of the kids had come in and asked one of their aunties to reach a book they weren’t tall enough to get. “Do you see the difference they make with really fine hair?”
“Ay, no need for the I-told-you-so,” Jahmoni chided good-naturedly. “Maybe if you let me play with your hair more, I woulda known how helpful they are.”
I got the sense that we were about to launch into a very familiar argument between the two, so I closed my eyes and leaned back into my previous position, basking in the utter sense of community surrounding me.
I wasn’t quite sure how I found myself sitting in a lounge area attached to the dining hall in the main cabin, but there was a very specific set of events that had led me to sitting on the floor while my new acquaintances gave me a new ’do.
It wasn’t a protective style, because my hair wasn’t the right texture or thickness, but it felt very similar to French braids, just with some fun extra bends in them. I wished I had a mirror so I could see, because the anticipation was most certainly rising.
It was a bit nerve-racking, because what if I had dandruff? Or what if I hadn’t washed my scalp properly? But those voices only popped up once every twenty minutes or so. Mostly, I was having a great time just being included.
A teenage boy was on the floor across from me. His mother was putting a complicated and frankly beautiful design into his hair. Two young girls were to my right getting their own styles, and then a gaggle of kids were in a loose formation on the ground in the other direction, playing with a mix of action figures, stuffed animals, and dolls.
Was this what it was like to have a family? For some reason, I’d never pictured it this way. Maybe because my own had been less than stellar. But man, I could easily get used to this.
Which was a dangerous thought to have.
It was one thing not to know about something so I could never miss it. But how was I supposed to go back to my life now that I knew how warm, exciting, and even overwhelming having so many living, loving relatives could be?
Whoa, that was way too complicated a thought to have at the moment. Besides, I would always be okay as long as Max was happy and healthy. That was what truly mattered in life.
“Eva, dearie, did you forget you had some toys over here,tite fille?” another lady beside me asked. She was a bit older than the rest of us, with hair just beginning to gray at her temples.
“No,” Eva said calmly.
“Are you sure,cher? You don’t wanna include thenounours?” the woman pressed, pointing at the teddy bear. I wished I could remember her name, but I’d met so many people so quickly.
“No, Mr. Booty claimed sovereign citizenship and ran afoul of the new ruler of Toyland, Belle Savannah Caroline Scarlett Genevieve the Third, and was exiled to the death pit. But, since there’s no death pit here, he gets the floor.”
