Band-Aids

Standing at the top of the snow covered hill, Jenny watched her kids scream in joyous merriment as they sped down the slope in their cheap, plastic sled. A smile formed across her lips when she heard the shrill of Daniels giggle over all the other noisy kids that were playing on the snow hill that day.

Once the kids slowed to a stop from the thick snow, Jenny trotted down the hill to meet the two at the bottom so she could pull them back up to do it again. She was surprised the kids made it down all the way without Carrigan or Daniel tumbling out of the toboggan before they even reached the halfway point.

“We made it Daniel!” Carrigan smiled proudly and stood up to begin searching for the string that was supposed to be used to steer with.

“Here, how about I pull the sled up and you two sit in the sled?” Jenny offered after seeing Carrigan stumbling and falling as she tried to pull her brother back up the hill by herself.

“Is Alex here yet?!” the little girl yelled expectantly. She jumped out of the sled once they reached the top and stood on her tiptoes to try and look through the crowd. Jenny cringed, seeing Carrigan so eager for the boy that probably wasn’t going to show up.

Daniel faltered in his step, having trouble walking through the deep snow with his stubby legs and puffy jacket. “Alex?! Alex?!” he called, like Alex was a dog and would come running to him.

Letting out a deep exhale, Jenny crouched down and pulled her two kids closer to her to look them in the eye. She had to break it to them that Alex probably wasn’t coming. She hated that she agreed to invite him to go sledding with them; Jenny knew it was just getting her kids’ hopes up to be crushed from his probable absence. It was all Carrigan and Daniel blabbered about during the drive home, through lunch and since they arrived at the sliding hill.

“Alex might not be coming, sweetie.”

“Why?” Carrigan whined followed by contorting her face in to a very unhappy pout.

“Well,” Jenny hesitated, trying to figure out how to word the statement without Alex coming out as the bad guy, as much as Jenny wanted him to appear that way, it wasn’t right. “Sometimes, um, some people feel uncomfortable when they meet new people. And Alex, you see, he thought he could come and play with you but he probably has some other things to do and he forgot about it when he was talking to you.”

“So he is not coming sledding?”

“Probably not, sweetie.” Jenny felt horrible saying that as she looked in to Carrigan broken eyes. “But!” she tried to cheer up the situation, “We can still have fun by ourselves can’t we?”

“Mama!” Daniel cried, crawling through the snow to show Jenny his mitten with a fresh hole in the fingertip. Jenny quickly kissed Carrigan and handed her the string of the sled and then scooped up Daniel and carried him over to the bench where Carrigan’s backpack was sitting. After digging through the junk Jenny packed, she found the extra pair of mittens for Daniel.

Daniel ran off towards his sister, where she had started pushing bunches of snow in to a giant pile. Being two, the thought of Alex not showing up had already passed through Daniel’s mind and he was absorbed in the present activity. Carrigan, whose mind usually passed over things like that as well, was still sad at the fact that her new, fun friend wasn’t going to be playing with her today.

Jenny watched the two small kids, bundled in their puffy snow pants, giant, thick jackets and clunky boots. Mittens, hats and scarves were also present, making the only skin visible the eye area. The chubby cheeks were bundled inside of the hood, hat and scarf, guaranteeing warmth and preventing frostbite. Even though it was pretty warm for a January afternoon, Jenny was always overprotective of her kids. She did everything she could to shield them and keep them safe, pampering with anything she could with the little money and time she had.

“Is that Carrigan I see?!” a deep voice floated in the chilly air, grabbing the three Moffat’s attention. “And Daniel?!”

“Alex!” Carrigan shouted ecstatically and stood up to run over to him and jump around his leg.

“Hi guys,” he smiled, walking to where Daniel and Jenny were still patting the snow in to the pile.

Jenny stood up and brushed the snow off her jeans. “Hey Alex,” she strained a smile.

“Sorry it took me so long. I haven’t worn these babies in forever!” he joked, pointing down to his giant snow boots. Jenny laughed, looking to the boy who was shadowing Alex. “Oh, this is my friend that I was talking about,” Alex pointed his left.

“Hi, I’m Jenny Moffat.” Jenny stuck out her hand.

“Rian Dawson,” he said, returning the gesture and shaking her hand.

“Your name is Rian?” Carrigan blurted out and Rian nodded. “A boy at my daycare is named Ryan!”

Rian chuckled, finding he was already smiling nonstop around the kids. “That’s awesome.”

“This is Carrigan,” Alex said, reaching down to tickle her stomach that was hiding somewhere under her layers. “And this is Daniel,” he introduced, pointed to Daniel who was content in Jenny’s arms.

“Cool,” Rian nodded. “Well, I brought this awesome saucer sled!” he said, holding up the round, purple plastic.

Immediately Alex took off after Carrigan who was running to her own sled and situated them both before rocketing down the hill. Jenny placed Danny in Rian’s lap and gave them a push and they took off just as fast and Alex and Carrigan had.

With bigger people in the sleds, the kids definitely went twice as fast and had tripled the fun. Surprisingly, Carrigan and Daniel didn’t get tired and continued to want to go down over and over and over. There were plenty of combinations; Alex and Daniel, Carrigan and Rian, Rian and the kids, Jenny, Alex and Carrigan, Daniel, Rian and Jenny, Jenny and her own kids, Alex and Rian and the last went on.

After being tackled in the wet snow one time too many, Jenny sauntered up the hill and plopped herself down on a bench so she could still watch the other four frolicking in the snow. She had to admit she was very wary of Alex and Rian at the beginning, afraid of how they would play with her kids but after a while she put away her mothering instincts and had fun, finding how great the two boys were.

She heard a deep yell come from Alex’s throat and Jenny peered down the slope to see Rian sitting on Alex’s back and pressing him in to the snow while Carrigan and Daniel attempted to form snowballs to throw at Alex.

A little while later, she saw Alex trudging through the snow up the hill, ice crystals frozen in his stringy hair, jeans completely soaked and sagging off his thighs and his face was wet and red from the snow that was thrown at him.

“I need a drink,” he said exhausted, practically throwing himself on the bench. Jenny cackled at his expression. “I forgot how tiring it is to be kid,” he said sarcastically. Though he was tired, Alex was having a great time with Carrigan and Daniel, no matter how weird it seemed to be playing with a couple kids that he met at the dentist.

Jenny chuckled again at him. “I’m surprised Carrigan and Daniel are still up and going. They’ve been doing this for a while. Why does it always turn out that kids will be entertained for a long while by going up and down a hill, but when you give them toys, games and books it doesn’t hold their attention for two minutes?”

Alex laughed at Jenny’s statement; she was completely right. But mostly he was surprised at how different she acted when her kids weren’t around. She seemed to say whatever she wanted and didn’t have to watch what she said. Alex slumped in his seat for a while, letting out soft chuckles once and a while when seeing Rian, Daniel or Carrigan doing something amusing.

“So,” Alex started, sitting up and scooting a little closer to Jenny so they were in a comfortable conversation distance. “What do you do for a living?”

“Um, I’m a florist.”

“A florist?”

“Yeah,” Jenny smiled. “I actually started my own business about two years ago, when I moved out here to Baltimore.”

“Wow that’s so awesome,” Alex exclaimed, surprised and a little more intimidated by Jenny and her eagerness and drive.

“Yeah thanks. What about you?” Jenny asked a little uncomfortable. She felt like Alex was better friends with her kids than her so she didn’t really know how to talk to him.

“I’m a musician.”

“Wow, really?” Jenny asked, genuinely interested in the discussion now.

Alex nodded, taking off his hat and running his hands through his damp hair. “Yeah, I’m in a band.”

Jenny gave Alex a once over quickly. “I can totally see that. You look like you would be in a band.”

Alex faked a shocked expression. “What is that supposed to mean?!” Jenny giggled at Alex, of course keeping an eye on her children, but enjoying Alex.

“Well come on, you know. You just look like a rock star.” Alex laughed heartedly but lightly shoved Jenny’s shoulder.

“I’m very offended, Jenny.” Alex somberly looked at Jenny, trying to make her feel bad.

“Oh, whatever.” She continued chuckling lightly. The way Alex held himself, slow moving, smooth talking and the simple gestures he did, like making a person seem like they were the only important one as the spoke, the direct eye contact and laid back attitude definitely rubbed him off as a people person. “So is Rian in your little band too?”

Alex laughed, “You make it seem like I still live in my mom’s basement and practice in my grandma’s garage after school! But, yes. Rian is in my “little band.”

Jenny’s smiled was permanently stuck on her face from the way Alex talked to her and Alex loved talking to the Jenny that wasn’t uptight and was wittier. Jenny’s attention was pulled from Alex and immediately was searching for where she heard the crying. Her eyes landed on Daniel who had fallen out of his sled. She started to get up to tend to him, but was waved off by Rian who already had Daniel in his arms, bouncing him around.

Alex sat beside her, observing every movement Jenny did, from her sitting on the edge of the bench nervously watching Rian toss Daniel up in the air and catch him to the twitches in her smile when one of her kids laughed. He admired how much she cared.

Alex broke the comfortable silence between them, “Your kids are really great, Jenny.” She turned her head back to him and smiled toothily at him. “Really. They are so…” he trailed off, trying to think of the right word to say they were cute, smart, respectful, hilarious, fun and incredible but not seem too attached or overstepping the line. “…great.”

Jenny laughed at his choice of words. “Thanks, Alex.”

“You’re lucky you were given some good kids. I’ve seen some pretty shitty ones.”

“Alex!” she said, trying to hide her inappropriate smirk and trying to be taken back by his blunt and offensive statement. Alex seemed to do that though, not really caring what people thought of what he said. He knew he was free to say whatever he wanted.

“What?” he asked innocently. Jenny rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly, secretly laughing at Alex’s frankness. Also thankful she wouldn’t have to go any deeper in to her family or non-existent and broken one.

Jenny looked out to the hill and saw Rian struggling with the two sleds and a kid on each hip. She quickly stood up and took Carrigan from Rian so he could take a breath.

“I’m cold,” Carrigan sniveled, the scarf hanging loosely around her neck and her cheeks bright pink and her nose running from the cold.

“Well we better go and warm up, huh?” She nodded vigorously.

“We could head over to our house and have some hot chocolate? We literally live right there,” Rian suggested, pointing to the area that neighbored the park.

“Yeah! Yeah!” Carrigan cheered. “Can we?!”

Alex and Rian held the same hopeful look as Daniel and Carrigan did and Jenny hated having to tell them no. “Sorry honey, it’s almost four and you and Daniel didn’t even get your nap today.” She watched her two kids’ eyes go from giant and hopeful to pure disappointment and the older boys did the same, doing a better job at hiding their displeasure. “I’m sorry.”

Jenny set Carrigan down and she started to pout and picked Daniel up so she could start putting their things together. “But I want to, Mama,” Daniel said brokenly. Rian and Alex chuckled at Daniel.

“How do you say no to that?” Rian joked lightly. Jenny smiled sadly at the little boy with liquid running down his upper lip and pink chubby cheeks cold from the wind.

Alex took Carrigan’s hand and walked with her behind Jenny and Daniel to the car. After buckling the two kids secure in their car seats and shutting the door, Jenny turned to the two boys who were standing outside the car.

“I don’t even know how to say thank you, you guys. They loved it so much. Thank you so much!”

Rian flicked his wrist. “Nah, don’t sweat it, Jenny. I think I had more fun doing this than some of the things I do with my friends that are actually my age.”

Jenny and Alex laughed, Alex agreeing with Rian. Alex wasn’t sure how to say goodbye without the situation being awkward. He knew he probably wouldn’t see the kids again, the only thing they had in common was the dentist and he rarely went there since he was always busy.

Jenny was feeling the same way. It was sad to say bye to the people that she and her kids connected so well with, knowing they would never talk again.

“Um,” Jenny cleared her throat, “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” Alex said awkwardly. “Good luck with your whole business shebang.”

Jenny smiled in thank you. “And good luck with your “little band” thing,” she said causing Alex to laugh at their little inside joke. “Thanks again you guys, so much.”

“Yep!”

“Bye!”

“Bye,” Jenny said before stepping in to her car, a little dazed at how quickly the two boys came and went. She turned her head to look at the kids and see how they were doing, but they were already asleep from the excitement and exhaustion of the day.