Crayons

When Emily got home that day, she went straight to her bedroom without saying hello to her mom. She lay on her bed and pulled her knees to her chest.

This had been a ritual for the past week. Lindsey Warrd already had Emily’s tea ready and a low dose of antacid on a tray and took it up to her room, sighing when she saw her daughter, in too much pain to even take off her shoes.

Lindsey put the tray down on the nightstand and took Emily’s shoes off, taking them to her closet and grabbed a pair of sweatpants.

Emily changed into them and took her pill, and her mom tucked her in, worriedly. This pain had gone on for about a week and Lindsey was more than ready to call a doctor, but her daughter was deathly afraid of them. She could only hope that it was just anxiety or too much acid in her stomach.

But she decided to call Adam anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hi Adam, it’s Lindsey.”

Adam put down his ungraded paper and leaned back in his chair. “Oh – is everything alright?”

“Well, no. Emily’s been having stomach issues lately and I wanted to talk to you about it.”

“I did notice her holding her stomach yesterday, but I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Yeah. It’s been going on for the past week and I would call a doctor but she’s so afraid of them.”

“Can you call and just talk to her doctor? He might be able to tell you something.”
“I did call. I asked him if it might have something to do with her…cycle and he said that he doesn’t think she’ll start for another year. I don’t know what to do; I’m not getting any answers. I’m worried it’s something dangerous.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her, okay? If anything changes or gets worse I’ll let you know. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Thank you.”

“Sure.” Adam smiled but sighed after the dial tone came. His heart and stomach panged with worry and he had the irresistible urge to go check on her. He stopped looking at his paper and got a snack to mask the feeling.

-

The next morning, Emily’s was happy because she felt a lot better. Though her stomach continued to feel funny, it didn’t hurt and neither did her head. She was able to get dressed by herself and even ate a little breakfast. She went to school with a smile on her face.

Adam was surprised to see her so happy that afternoon. He opened his mouth to mention it but decided against it. He thought that Emily would be embarrassed if she knew that he knew what was going on.

The lessons went fine, along with her recreation and snack. Emily felt a little less stressed when she realized that Quill wasn’t there. She had been nervous about playing with him.
Emily slept peacefully that night. And everything was okay was for the next week.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, Emily played with Quill during recreation. She was still a little hesitant, but she learned to like Quill, and she thought he had started liking her too. When he would wake from his nap, his face would light up and he would smile and bounce on his feet, not sure what to do with himself. It made Emily giggle and smile, too, to see him that happy.

They also shared grapes during snack. Adam never failed to bring them, and the three of them would eat them until the bag was empty. Then Adam would jokingly complain about how he had to go back to the store, again.

Adam hadn’t mentioned anything to Emily or Quill’s mom, but Quill had already started making huge progress. He had actually started reacting to things, like seeing Emily for example. His anxiety levels were lower and he shook his hands less and less with each day. Some days, he would only shake them once or twice.

He was also starting to do a form of copying. Adam would watch Emily and Quill play. Emily would pull back her purple car and it would zip backwards down the track. Eventually, she would grow bored of the game and would color or play with blocks.

A few minutes later, Quill would pick up his car and play with it almost the same way Emily did with hers. He hadn’t learned to pull it back, but he would push it hard enough so that it would go up most of the way on its own.

This wasn’t exactly copying. Adam really wanted Quill to do exactly as Emily did right after she did it. But it was close enough to make him hopeful and happy.

Quill’s reactions also helped Emily. She slowly learned his reactions, both positive and negative. She understood him, which was something difficult for someone with her condition. She knew when to leave him alone, when to give him praise and when to play with him. They were learning from each other, and Adam couldn’t have been more proud.

-

By November 1st, the pain in Emily’s stomach came back to life. Her head ached down to her collar bone and her throat burned from extra acids. She missed a whole week of school, was tortured through two days of the worst weekend she thought she would ever had before the pain was bearable.

When Monday finally arrived, Emily woke to the sound of her alarm clock and got dressed. Her stomach had stopped hurting late the night before, but as she pulled on her navy stockings, something in her lower tummy twisted; she ignored it and finished getting dressed.

-

Three times, Emily had gone to the bathroom in vain. Two teachers gave her hard looks for interrupting their lesson for something as unimportant as bodily functions, and one very nice one asked if she wanted her help to go with her. Emily shook her head, too embarrassed to speak.

By Half-Day school, she was incredibly confused. But everything went just fine. She learned all of her subjects, and played with Quill during recreation. She was okay when they all sat around the little table in the Snack Area, but as Adam opened the new bag of grapes, her stomach twisted in a knot, and she felt as if she had to use the bathroom.

She asked Adam’s permission, walked to the thin closet-like door and closed it behind her.

And then she screamed.

“Adam!” Emily screamed again. Adam was already at the door, listening to her cries and feeling the panic rush to his heart.

“Emily, sweetie, what is it? What happened?” Adam asked as slowly as he could. He wanted to just barge into the bathroom but he know that he couldn’t. Emily blubbered a few incomprehensible words before shouting, “I’m dying!” and at that Adam was truly confused and afraid.

“Unlock the door Emily!” He said to her.

“No!” She screamed, as if Adam was crazy. “You can’t come in!”

Adam knew he needed a girl. So he went and found one.

-

About an hour later, the crisis was finished. Adam found a female coworker that coaxed Emily into unlocking the door for her. At first, she was scared as well when she saw the blood, but quickly remembered Emily’s age and sighed. And the poor girl thought she was dying, she said to herself.

Adam sat at his desk, resting his head on his hand. He felt a little embarrassed. For one, he should have known what had been going on. Emily’s mother had called him and told him the possibility of this happening. He also felt utterly stupid because he was a guy and couldn’t do very much to help her or understand all of it.

He watched Quill closely as he played in the Recreation Area with the ever-popular car track. Emily’s car was well hidden in the desk drawer.

The woman who helped Emily had, a half an hour before, led a wildly blushing Emily to a nap-mat a pillow they had placed on the floor. She was still laid there sleeping. Adam’s eyes drifted as he chewed on his bottom lip. The drifted casually across her hair waved hair closed eyelids. He eyed her long lashes that never seemed to have been touched by mascara before. He eyes caught sight of one of her hands curled up on the pillow by her face, positioned like a child’s and his lips pulled up into a smile.

He was so busy watching Emily sleep he didn’t notice Quill’s movement on the other side of her. When he rested on his knees beside her, Adam jumped from his chair, ready to protect her, but Quill didn’t do anything wrong. Instead, he laid a shaking hand on her shoulder and slowly rubbed downward. Adam watched in amazement as he repeated this motion after a few shaky hand motions below his chin. Adam walked over and crouched on the other side of Emily’s still soundly sleeping body. He ran a hand gently across her hairline. “Sick,” he said to Quill. Quill looked up at him, not responding, just looking. His hands shook under his chin before he went back to rubbing Emily’s shoulder. Adam continued to stroke her hair.

Emily smiled in her sleep.