Devil's Work

Today is a special day, they tell me.

They’ve dressed me up in my nicest clothes and they’ve given me baths to make me smell nice, sleepy nice. I wonder what the occasion is but their voices are dull murmurs in my ears and I fall asleep again.

When I wake up I am being rocked back and forth by a familiar smell. I reach up my arms to feel around me before my eyes open. My fingers only grasp a softness surrounding my face.

“Hi Kaitlynn,” I feel warm breath on my face. “You’re going to come home now with me. Isn’t that great? Don’t you want to see your new house?”

It’s Frank. He is my favourite friend, except for Gerard. They are both my favourites. I love it when they come play with me but I always get sad when they have to go. Now Frank says I get to go home with him! I hope Gerard is there. I think he will be because he and Frank live together and they love each other.

I gurgle in response. He grins widely and kisses my cheek. He rocks me back and forth but I don’t want to sleep because he is here and I want to make sure he doesn’t leave. He kisses my cheeks lots of times and I try to grab his nose but he doesn’t let me. He only laughs and touches my head and it makes me sleepy again.

I sleep until I’m woken up by Frank softly patting my back. There is a new smell around me, I begin to notice. I see some nice softness on my feet and it’s pink and it’s warm like before I ever came here. It must be a gift from Frank because he’s smiling like he’s very happy. He rocks me and holds me and I can only close my eyes but I try not to sleep.

Soon there are more voices in the room and I try to open my eyes but they are blurred from Frank’s sweater. It smells just like him and a little bit of Gerard. I want to see Gerard.

I whine and then Frank shuffles around with me in his arms, and he makes a sound like, “Shh,” and it sounds so nice, whooshing in my ears, but I want to know what’s going on.

Soon we are beside someone and I try to get away from Frank’s arms to see. It is Gerard; I can see his long black hair that I love to tug. My arms reach out towards him and he laughs and kisses Frank’s cheek. “She’s perfect,” he whispers in a voice that is not supposed to be heard by others, but I think there is another person who hears him anyways.

There is a big lady standing beside Gerard, telling him to sign a few more things, and I don’t understand. But there are a million smiles in the room as we leave and I can’t help but feel happy inside of me.

Above me, Frank smiles proudly again before placing me in a car. He talks to me as he straps me in safely.

“How long we’ve been waiting for you,” he tells me, his voice drenched in relief. “Since you weren’t even born yet. Since you were this—” He pinches his fingers together, “—small.” The tip of his finger grazes my nose, and I stare up at him. He closes the door beside me and then gets into the car. We drive for a while before I grow sleepy, listening to Frank and Gerard’s exchange of happy words.

Frank’s humming is the last thing I hear before I drift into Dreamland.