The Stupid Stories Were Real?!

I bounded down the stairs hearing my brother laughing maniacally. I jumped the last step and looked into the kitchen to see my Great Dane, Nanny, licking peanut butter off of her nose. “Eric what did you do to poor Nanny?” I laughed kneeling next to him wiping his face off.

“I put peanut buttew oh hew nose!” He said giggling and trying to look innocent. I laughed and wiped his face.

“Must you terrorize my dog Eric?” He just laughed and nodded his head. “Alright you finish your breakfast and go brush your teeth for grandma Jane’s.”

“Yay we’re going to grammy Jane’s! I get to hear about Petew Pan!” He smiled wide and started wolfing down his breakfast.

“Yup! Whoa, whoa, whoa there bud! Slow down! Peter Pan will wait until we get there!” I laughed. I got myself a pop tart and stuck it in the toaster. I leaned against the counter and watched my brother eat happily and laugh at Nanny some more.

As I was watching him I saw this small gold dust cloud thing floating above him. I stared at it a moment trying to figure out what it was. I watched as some of the golden dust fell down on my brother’s hair then the cloud itself start whizzing about the room. I watched it the whole time amazed at the beauty.

After it disappeared I grabbed my pop tarts out of the toaster and sat at the table by my brother ruffling his hair as I walked by him. I looked at my hand to see if there was any golden dust and there was nothing. “Strange,” I said aloud.

“What, dear?” My mom asked coming in with my sister trailing after her. Me and my sister looked like our dad and Eric took after our mom, but me and Eric were more like our dad personality wise and Theya was almost exactly like our mom.

“Oh, nothing,” I covered eating my pop tart.

“Geez San!” My sister said randomly.

“What?” I said with my mouthful of ooey gooey pop tart fudge filling falling out onto my chin.

“Why don’t you eat some healthy cereal instead of those things just oozing with sugar, and calories, and carbs, and sodium. Ugh,” she shuddered turning around. I looked at Eric and we both put our fingers in our mouth to fake gag.

I finished my pop tart and laughed. I grabbed Eric’s hand and led him out of the dining room, “Come one squirt let’s finish getting you ready.” We were now in the bathroom and I was wiping his face free of cereal crumbs.

There came a muffled, “Sandi,” from him so I said, “Yeah, bud?”

“Mmmen mis maddy moming mack?” He asked as I continued wiping his face smiling.

“What?” I laughed.

He huffed and pushed the rag down away from his mouth, “When is daddy coming back?” He asked with sad, sad eyes.

“Eric… daddy is away right now. He’s fighting for our country. He’s fighting to keep us safe, you know that right?” I said placing the rag on the sink and gripping his upper arms lightly. Our dad has been fighting in Iraq for two years now and we’ve all missed him so much.

“I know,” He pouted and sniffled in that way in only three year olds can, “I just wanna meet daddy.”

“I know, Bud. I know,” I said hugging him.

“Sandi? Can you tell me about daddy?” He said looking into my eyes with his tearful ones.

“Sure buddy. Come on I’ll tell you about daddy on the way to Grandma Jane’s where she’ll tell you about Peter Pan!” I said to brighten him up.

“Yay! Peter Pan!” He yelled running down the stairs with me right on his tail. “Come on momma! Peter Pan!!” He yelled and grabbed our mom’s hand and pulled her towards the door.

“Whoa Eric what’s the rush?” She smiled down at him.

“Peter Pan, momma! Peter Pan!” He yelled with a smile.

“Alright, alright Sandi will you go strap your brother in the car while I get a few things ready?” She asked me.

“Just a second mom, come on Squirt I gotta get a few things from my room,” I said grabbing his hand and pulling him on my back and started buzzing around like a plane.

He giggled and giggled all the way up to my room where I grabbed my cell phone and iPod. I buzzed all the way to the car where I strapped him in with his riding buddy, a homemade doll given to him by our Grandma Jane, and tried to catch my breath.

Once I had my breath I turned to look at him, “You ready to hear about daddy little man?” I asked smiling.

“Yup! Tell me about daddy, Sandi!”

“Okay settle in cause there’s a lot of stuff,” he wiggled around to get a little more comfortable. “You set?” I asked and he nodded. “Okay so daddy has black hair like me and Theya and green gray eyes like us too. He has short hair like you though. He always has a smile on his face and is always cracking jokes…”