Devil's Work

The night is cool but Frank has wrapped me in blankets. He walks beside Gerard, and Alicia is on the other side of him walking beside Mikey. The neighborhood is quiet.

“Shit, Frank,” Gerard sighs under his breath. “What if... they followed us...?”

“Just relax, Gerard, don’t ruin the fun,” Frank tells him, and then he smiles at me while I wriggle around in the stroller. It is facing him and not anywhere else. It bothers me because I want to see everything.

It bothers me so much that I let a cry escape my mouth. Usually now I don’t cry at small things, only when I need to, like for food and other things, but this frustration has built up in me.

“Oh, baby,” Alicia frowns. “Hey Frank, can I carry her?”

“Sure!” Frank nods and then he takes me out of the stroller. I happily cling to Alicia’s sweater. Frank keeps pushing the stroller.

Alicia lets me play with Mikey’s face while we walk. Mikey looks a lot like Gerard, maybe because they are brothers, and that I find funny. He laughs and plays with me.

I see other people in the neighborhood. People closer to my size, but still a lot bigger. They are being called in by their parents but they don’t listen and they keep playing on the grass outside of the doors of their houses. That isn’t good to me, because I do whatever Frank and Gerard say. At least I try. I would hate to make them unhappy.

“Haven’t you ever taken Kaitlynn to the park?” Alicia asks. Frank gives her a look and then she says, “Right, right. I forgot about the crimes there. But she’s looking at these kids like she’s surprised, or something.”

“She’s only seen babies and adults, I think,” Gerard adds. “I don’t think she understands that she’ll get a little bigger at a time. I think she wants to be an adult now.”

They all laugh and I feel irritated. I don’t want them to laugh because I want to be big. It makes me cry out again.

“Kaity,” Gerard says in his certain tone that tells me it’s okay. I stop.

Soon we approach another man and woman with a stroller. Frank tries to maneuver out of the way but we all get stuck as a big crowd of people.

The woman says to Alicia, “She’s beautiful.”

Alicia replies, “Oh, she’s my brother-in-law’s.”

Gerard bites his lip and looks nervous. Frank doesn’t show anything, only tries to work with the other man so that the strollers get un-stuck.

“Wow, did you adopt?” the woman asks. “My brother and his partner have been trying for years. I’ll tell him about this! Maybe it’ll give him hope.”

A small smile breaks out onto Gerard’s lips. “Thanks,” he finally mumbles. He shakes hands with the woman and the man shakes hands with Frank, and Frank says, “Best of luck to your brother.” Then we are all un-stuck and on our way back to Mikey and Alicia’s house.

“Some neighborhood,” Gerard mutters to Mikey.

“Why don’t you move here, then?” Mikey asks hesitantly. “You don’t get... bothered a lot there, do you?”

“Not recently,” Frank tells him conversationally. Gerard shoots him a look.

“Well,” Gerard hums, “I mean, the dealership thing is taking off now, you know? Guess more people want more cars.”

“That’s good to hear,” Mikey comments. But he shares a look with Gerard that neither Frank nor Alicia catches. It looks like some special brother look that they seem to have done a million times before.

It goes quiet for a while. I give a small whine to break the silence.

“Is my baby tired?” Frank asks in a droopy voice. I whine again. “Oh, oh, all right. Baby’s going to sleep as soon as we get back.”

Alicia strokes my head and they all talk in quiet, hushed voices as we return to the house.