His First Choice

“Mommy does,” Levi said. “She teached me.”

Nice. Normal. Conscientious. Good mothering.

“And you like it?”

“Uh-huh.” The boy nodded while he picked up a piece and put it in its proper place. They were making a train with a smiling face on the front of the engine.

He was concentrating. Showing no signs of discomfort or stress. But he was back to the same one-word answers he’d given her when she’d questioned him in the playroom at work. Not chattering on as she’d come to recognize as his normal way.

Because he didn’t like being questioned? Was she making problems where there were none?

The little cast came into view. And she thought of the unexplained bruises on his torso. Nightmares. A mother who chose to have her son immediately taken away when a social worker showed up at the door. The day care’s report of changed developmental performance and personality. One and a half known hospital visits for each year of his life.

Normal or not?

On a hunch, she asked, “How old were you when you learned to swim?”

She didn’t expect him to know. Four-year-olds didn’t usually catalog in a time sequence.

“I dunno.”

“Did you take lessons besides with your mom?”

“Nope.” He placed another piece.

“Do you swim at your mom’s a lot?” Kacey asked, her tone completely different from Lacey’s.

“I dunno.”

Feeling guilty for the interrogation, Lacey decided to let the whole thing drop, to trust Sydney to do her job.

She found an eyeball for the engine’s face and handed it to Levi. “Here, I think this goes in over there,” she said, not saying where “there” was.

He put it immediately in place. “Did your mommy teach you to swim?” His soft r’s grabbed at Lacey.

He wasn’t looking at either sister. They looked at each other. “Yes,” Lacey said when Kacey shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t want to answer.

“She taught both of us at once,” Kacey added then. At which Levi looked up at her, cocking his head and frowning. “Does twins’ moms have four hands?”

“Of course not, silly.” Lacey grinned at that. He was a normal, sweet little boy. She was giving him too much credit, thinking he was so completely advanced and purposely holding back.

His face didn’t clear. “How does she hold two under at once?”

“Hold two under?” Kacey asked the question. Lacey’s heart thrummed in overtime. She told herself not to jump to conclusions.

“You know, hold you under so you don’t suck in your nose and then you come up again.” Kacey’s eyes widened.

“Oh, you mean holding on to you and dunking you under to help you glide through the water and then bring you back up?” Lacey said, breathing easier. Toddler swim classes, at least in California, where children were around water frequently, were common. Drowning deaths among young children were, statistically, a high cause of death and the best protection for them was knowing how to swim.

Levi had been placing a piece. It didn’t fit, though he tried to force it, and he finally gave up. Climbing down from his chair to stand on the floor, he said, “No, you know, like this.” He grabbed hold of his ribs and then squatted down, paused several seconds and then jumped up with both feet leaving the ground. As though springing up out of the water.

“Oh,” Lacey said, glancing at Kacey and shaking her head.

“No, our mom didn’t do that with us.”

She was no longer on Levi’s case, but as a concerned citizen she could make another call. She could call every day if she had more to report.

“Did you like it?” Kacey asked.