I go and lay down on the couch. I am tired. I think Logan and I got to sleep around five in the morning, and it can’t be much later than that now. I lay back with a groan and close my eyes. I am just getting comfortable when two sharp elbows land in my midsection. Hayley crawls on top of me on the couch. I think she must be part monkey. She holds a kid-sized board book in her hand. “Wead,” she says, shoving it in my face.
I sit up, tucking her into my lap. I take the book from her and open it, but the words jumble. I turn it upside down. “Once upon a time,” I begin.
“Dat’s not how it goes,” she complains.
She’s a smart girl. “I know,” I explain. “But books are magical and if you turn them upside down, there’s a whole new story in the pages.”
“Weally?” she asks, her eyes big with wonder.
No, not really. But it’s the best I can do, kid. “Really,” I affirm.
She wiggles, settling more comfortably in my arms.
I start to make up a story, based on the upside down pictures. She listens intently. “Once upon a time, there was a little frog. And his name was Randolf.”
“Randolf,” she repeats with a giggle.
“And Randolf had one big problem.”
“Uh oh,” she breathes. “What kind a problem?”
“Randolf wanted to be a prince. But his mommy told him that he couldn’t be a prince, since he was just a frog.”
I keep reading until I say, “The end.” She lays the book to the side and snuggles into me. I kiss the top of her head, because it feels like the right thing to do. And she smells good. “Your story was better than the book’s story,” she says.
My heart swells with pride. “Thank you.” If only it was this easy to please the adults of the world.
“Want to watch TV?” she asks.
I yawn. “Sure. Why not?”
She goes over and picks up the DVD. “You go start it,” she instructs.
The DVD player is under the TV, and it doesn’t look that complicated. I put the movie in and turn the TV on. The movie starts, but it’s not a typical kids’ movie. It’s a movie that teaches sign language to children. I drop onto the floor to sit beside her. There’s a lady teaching each of the signs, and there are pictures. There are words at the bottom of the screen for people who can read. But it’s an instructional DVD made for kids.
Hayley sits beside me and she starts to repeat the signs. “You do it?” she asks. “We wearn signing for Logan.”
I am enraptured. “We learn sign language for Logan,” I repeat with a nod.
When the first DVD ends, we move on to the second. I have an amazing memory, because I have to have one. So, I think I can remember some of this. I’m giddy with excitement. I practice some of the more basic signs with Hayley.
We’re almost done with the second DVD when Paul walks into the room. “Hayley, what are you doing?” He scratches his stomach. His hair is a mess, sticking out all over the place.
She pats my cheek. “I wearning signing with Logan’s girl,” she says.
I like that. I like it a lot.
“Did she wake you up?” Paul asks, smothering a yawn.
I wave him off with a breezy hand. “It’s no big deal. She was showing me the DVD’s.”
He nods, his brows arching. “Well, I’m sorry she woke you. You should go back to bed.”
“Do you think it would be all right if I watch the rest of them later?” I ask, suddenly feeling shy about it.
He chuckles. “Of course. That’s how we all learned.”
I nod. He picks Hayley up, jiggling her until she giggles. He laughs at her. “Next time I tell you to stay in bed, I mean stay in bed, little girl,” he says. She laughs all the way down the hallway, until he takes her in his room and closes the door.
I yawn. The bed is calling to me. I go back in Logan’s room, and he’s lying exactly like I left him. I draw the shades closed, so the room isn’t quite so bright. Then I take off his boxers and slide back into bed with him. He reaches for me immediately, pulling me into him as he rolls and covers me with his leg, his thigh across the backs of mine. “You all right?” he asks.
I nod. I’m all right. I can’t help but think that I’m where I’m supposed to be.
He brushes my hair from my face and nuzzles me with his lips. I settle deeper into him and go back to sleep with him wrapped around me.
It seems like only moments later when the bed begins to vibrate.
Logan
The bed vibrates and I reach over and smack the alarm clock. I hate early Saturday mornings. But I promised Sam that I would go and run some plays with him in the park before the shop opens. Sam’s a football player, and he’s being scouted by a few colleges. He thinks he might get a full ride, and I couldn’t be happier for him. He doesn’t have the grades to get a scholarship like I did. But he’s capable of getting an education through sports, and that works too.
The purr of Kit’s throat tells me that she’s saying something. I look down at her lips, but she’s laying with her face smushed into the pillow. “Did you say something?” I ask, rolling her to her back. I throw my leg across her.
She doesn’t speak, but she signs the word no at me. My heart leaps. She smiles, then her brown eyes open and she blinks at me. “Did I do that right?” She signs the word for right, but nothing more.
“Yes, it’s right. Where did you learn that?”