Cracks in Reality

My arms were wrapped around my legs; I held them firmly as I cried. The frills on this stupid little dress making my skin itch. At the group home the other kids made fun of me today, telling me ‘No wonder you mommy and daddy left you. You have weird hair.’ I fell asleep in the closet of my shared bed room while the kids played outside during recess but even here in my dream I cried. I heard someone walking towards me and looked up.

“Who’s there?” I sniffled; my face hot was with embarrassment that someone would see my cry.

“My name is James.” He stepped out from behind a tree, eyes wide, his yellow hair dirty and a mess.

“What’s your name?”

“Rubidium,” I struggled to wrap my tongue around my own name, “Ruby, just call me Ruby.” I place my head back on my knees.

“Why are you crying Ruby? Is there a monster here?” He looked around in search for the monster.

“No, everyone told me my mommy and daddy left me alone because of my weird hair.”

He took a step towards me and smiled, “That’s silly; you have nice hair, just like my auntie.”

“Then why did they leave me?” I felt the tears start rolling down my checks again.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “but who could understand grownups? How about I be your friend? I will never leave you, okay? Will that make you feel better?”

“A little bit.” He sat next to me and put his tiny arm around me.

“How old are your Ruby?”

I held up three fingers and gave a small smile through my tears.

“I remember being three, it’s hard.” He had a serious grownup face on. “Don’t worry, I can help you.”

“How old are you?” I asked peering at him in awe.

He held up four fingers and I gasped. “I want to be four too.”

“You will be four someday.”

“James thanks for being my friend.” I smiled at him.

We spent the rest of our time playing on the playground. He pushed me on the swings, we played on the slide. He told me his favorite was the monkey bars so we spent the most time on those. We ran through the sprinklers, and drew with chalk on the floor. It started to get darker and we both knew that means it was time to go.

“Good-bye Ruby. I will see you tomorrow.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I made a promise and my pops always told me never to break a promise.” Then he was gone, I was sitting in the closet of my group home.