The Incorrigible Child

Had cuddled like the salamander that she was as a child and asks, “You love me?”

At 29 and with three children of her own, she is still and always the baby among her sisters and over simple things now like wanting a Big Mac meal. (Her fourth sister lambasting the crew and the supervisor once reaching the counter You should have said while were on line and ordering that there’s no damn Big Mac because that was the whole point of coming here. )

Her wanting these gray flats from Parisian and waiting for the sale which made her fourth sister wince and nod Next time you tell me when you want something for yourself and we’ll get it. The incorrigible child looking sad for the flats were gone; she shrugs, smiles, says, “Next time. The children’s shoes are more important.”

Now the child says she’s afraid and her fourth sister says I understand--- What do you want to know? She tells the child that they would put her to sleep, that she would count one to ten and she’ll be asleep before the end.

“Good,” she says, “I don’t want to hear the---” steel on steel basins.

It will be cold and she will tremble but just breathe steadily. And when you wake up you will feel that soreness there; Don’t talk; Don’t move so much; We’ll be there. It is nothing compared to the pain of childbirth and you’ve gone through that three times.

And now the child is taking care of their senior citizen parents--- even her Nanoy’s things like a bus ticket--- and the house of their childhood; the childhood absent of hugs and I-love-you’s.

The fourth sister cradles this child as if she were a baby who does not weigh 55 kilos, “I love you…I love you…I love you…”

The child chuckles, “Dad used to say You’re an incorrigible child… I didn’t know what that word meant.”

The fourth sister laughs, “Daddy’s fault then that he wasn’t understood.”

And so with the children, words used are known and shown and if unknown are explained.