It was the spring of 2068, the year Maria was six and Lou was nine, the year they both decided they would drag their over-sized stuffie everywhere. Even, to their parents dismay, all the way to North Carolina on the family’s spring break trip to the Smokey Mountains.
Neither of them knew a lot about love that year, but they knew they loved Pixel. Lou hugged it enthusiastically, then kissed its furry head.
Maria was confused. “Did you just kiss a bear? Are you gonna marry him?”
“Pixel is a girl, and she’s not a bear,” Lou said.
“What is she then?”
“I don’t know, maybe a goat. Or a monster. She has a tree growing out of her head.”
Maria pursed her lips. “I don’t think you can marry a monster.”
“Duh, you can’t marry a goat, either!” Lou shrugged. “Then maybe I won’t marry anybody.”
“You have to get married,” Maria said.
“Why?”
“Because when I get married, you’ll be lonely.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t get married, either.”
“But I need to,” Maria said. “I’m gonna wear a big fluffy dress that’s purple and pink and sparkly like diamonds and a crown, and my wedding is gonna be in a castle and I’m gonna have a hundred babies. Or maybe just ten.”
“You can’t get married in a castle unless you get married to a prince,” Lou explained. “How are you gonna marry a prince? We don’t know any princes. Or anybody who’s really rich. If you want a castle, you have to find somebody who’s a prince or else super rich.”
“Oh,” Maria sighed, feeling a little like every movie she had ever watched had sold her lies.
With that, Lou walked away, snickering to herself, to investigate the pond, but Maria had more to think about. “Pixel, are you a girl monster? Or a girl goat?”
Pixel answered in the way only a six-year-old could hear.
“Okay, well, I guess you can marry Lou if you want, but I think she won’t be a good wife. She never helps us make cookies, and she wants to be by herself a lot of times, and she always says hugs can only be two seconds and not five, and she always thinks she’s right when she’s not right. But she does clean good. If you want your wife to clean good, then she might be a good one. But you have to promise we’ll still be best friends if you get married. You were my friend first.”
Maria was satisfied with their agreement, then she followed after her sister to see what she’d found in the pond. Live, slimy frogs, which she regretted finding instantly!
Within a few months, Maria and Lou would both forget the year this giant sack of fluff had been their favorite thing in the whole world, or that either one of them had ever wanted to marry it. Lovers come and go, they would learn, but sisters are forever.
19 years ago…
Their parents were intellectuals and scholars. One director of historical preservation, a professor of sociology, a professor of physics, an acoustic folk songwriter, a painter and high school art teacher, and a culinary school drop out who now specialized in delightful party appetizers and wrote gothic vampire romances under a pen name.
They were free thinking, clever, and creative, as would be all of their children one day, each in their own special ways.
“Lou, darling, is everyone getting along up there?”
“Yeah,” Lou answered to her mother, which would have been her answer whether they were getting along up there or not. But they did get along, mostly, which was what made this trio of families so special.
“Don’t get crumbs in the beds.”
They would not get crumbs on the beds. However, the floors and rugs were obviously doomed.
Maybe these children would never have known each other otherwise, but as their parents sipped spiked holiday cider and toked funny cigarettes, over the boisterous voices of discussion and debate downstairs and the childhood squeals and laughter upstairs, the Corelli, Pendleton, and Thompson siblings became inextricably linked.
“But I need to,” Maria said. “I’m gonna wear a big fluffy dress that’s purple and pink and sparkly like diamonds and a crown, and my wedding is gonna be in a castle and I’m gonna have a hundred babies. Or maybe just ten.”
“You can’t get married in a castle unless you get married to a prince,” Lou explained. “How are you gonna marry a prince? We don’t know any princes. Or anybody who’s really rich. If you want a castle, you have to find somebody who’s a prince or else super rich.”
“Oh,” Maria sighed, feeling a little like every movie she had ever watched had sold her lies.
With that, Lou walked away, snickering to herself, to investigate the pond, but Maria had more to think about. “Pixel, are you a girl monster? Or a girl goat?”
Pixel answered in the way only a six-year-old could hear.
“Okay, well, I guess you can marry Lou if you want, but I think she won’t be a good wife. She never helps us make cookies, and she wants to be by herself a lot of times, and she always says hugs can only be two seconds and not five, and she always thinks she’s right when she’s not right. But she does clean good. If you want your wife to clean good, then she might be a good one. But you have to promise we’ll still be best friends if you get married. You were my friend first.”
Maria was satisfied with their agreement, then she followed after her sister to see what she’d found in the pond. Live, slimy frogs, which she regretted finding instantly!
Within a few months, Maria and Lou would both forget the year this giant sack of fluff had been their favorite thing in the whole world, or that either one of them had ever wanted to marry it. Lovers come and go, they would learn, but sisters are forever.
———
19 years ago…
Their parents were intellectuals and scholars. One director of historical preservation, a professor of sociology, a professor of physics, an acoustic folk songwriter, a painter and high school art teacher, and a culinary school drop out who now specialized in delightful party appetizers and wrote gothic vampire romances under a pen name.
They were free thinking, clever, and creative, as would be all of their children one day, each in their own special ways.
“Lou, darling, is everyone getting along up there?”
“Yeah,” Lou answered to her mother, which would have been her answer whether they were getting along up there or not. But they did get along, mostly, which was what made this trio of families so special.
“Don’t get crumbs in the beds.”
They would not get crumbs on the beds. However, the floors and rugs were obviously doomed.
Maybe these children would never have known each other otherwise, but as their parents sipped spiked holiday cider and toked funny cigarettes, over the boisterous voices of discussion and debate downstairs and the childhood squeals and laughter upstairs, the Corelli, Pendleton, and Thompson siblings became inextricably linked.
They grew up mostly ignored except for one parent or another popping up at hourly intervals to see if they were still alive and nobody was setting anything on fire.
And it was a fun childhood to have. None of them were ever lonely for a moment. Always someone to play with, fight with, and dream with. These tender bonds of childhood were buried deep, no matter how the coming years of adolescence might challenge them, or how the further years of adulthood might try to deny them.
———
14 years ago…
A few years of childhood can change a lot, but at the same time change almost nothing. Their alliances ran strong, mostly untouched by their growing adolescence. None of them felt very much different. If changes had come as they grew older, they were so subtle they went unnoticed. It was a fresh concept for them all, that they weren’t exactly kids anymore.
For example, at twelve now, how Ian was becoming a whole young man, and his fondness for Jessica was apparent. And Jessica, blushing and flattered by his attention, made the situation reciprocal. That was problematic. It was time.
“Ian, darling. Your mother and I had a little chat. We think maybe it’s time you sleep over in Leo’s room from now on. Why don’t you say goodnight to the ladies.”
So Ian gathered up his sleeping bag and followed Judith across the hall to Leo’s room. “But why? Leo wets the bed.”
“I do not!” Leo objected. Eight-year-old Leo hadn’t wet the bed since he was five, but he would forever be remembered for the one time the big kids let him join their sleepover and he soaked his own and three more neighboring sleeping bags.
“It’s just that the girls are becoming women,” Judith explained. “They need their space.”
“Space to do what?”
“Oh, honey, well, paint their nails and talk about periods and makeup and gossip about boys. And… you know, girl things. There are certain feelings that may arise in you all as you’re all getting so big. It can be very hard for young people to restrain those feelings sometimes.”
“You mean, like, woohoo feelings?”
Judith cringed. “Well, maybe Leo is a little young for that conversation.”
“I am not!” Leo objected.
“Anyway, I think that’s something you should talk about with your dad, darling. You boys will have so much fun here. Leo could use a little playmate, too.”
So the boys bunked in Leo’s room from then on, and the girls were left in privacy to explore their sensitive “girl things.”
To be fair, the other four girls were definitely gossiping about boys.
———
And a few days later…
For real, neither Lou or Jamie wanted their first kiss to be in front of their sisters.
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