a different earth

Sugar Cookie

human year: five

Ms Teacher of room 3 gave her class an assignment that made Jean Tyler very excited. They were to draw pictures of their families. As she gazed dreamily up at a papier-mâché depiction of her table's mascot--a shiny, black cricket--she contemplated what she should draw. Would she have space to draw the fat grey nanny goat and the chickens, too, or just the cats and her sisters and Momma and Daddy? A dimpled pink hand reached out to pat her friend on the shoulder. He would know what colour she should use for the flowers

A sharp snap reached her ears and she pulled back her hand. The familiar sound was one of the things she hated most about Kindergarten. It was the sound of a broken crayon. Surprisingly, it came from TJ. He watched miserably as the pointed end of the Cadet Blue crayon rolled off the table and onto the floor. She was about to scold him for hurting the art supplies but stopped when she saw his nose wrinkle in an attempt to hold back tears.

"Tommy, what's wrong?"

"I...was gonna use that for the sky. And everything else."

The worn toe of a second-hand shoe trailed through the shreds of crayon wrapper that littered the stained carpet like dirty snow. Jean frowned.

"Why? You can put your mommy in that pretty green dress she wore that time for your birthday when you turned five. Remember? When you two came over to my house for the macaroni dinner and we put one of my birthday candles on a cupcake for you? And you can put your daddy in the suit he wears in that picture on your mommy's wall." Her voice slowed as she realized that TJ was scribbling grey clouds, then a grey mommy and a blue little boy. Meekly, she tried again.

"Well, he doesn't have to wear black, but I don't think I've seen him outside the picture..."

He growled through his teeth. "Blue Jeans. I don't have a daddy in my family. My family is just Mommy and me and the fishy who we flushed last week. Daddy is mean to me and Mommy."

Jean's lower lip began to tremble. She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. Her words were supposed to make TJ smile...

"But...you told me you wanted your daddy..."

His voice softened, but his grip on the black crayon tightened. Snap.

"I don't want that daddy. He left a hand-print on Mommy's arm last night. Anyone who hurts the people I love isn't part of my family."

Jean sniffled. She got the Cornflower crayon from her box and drew another woman on her paper, then drew a boy in Purple Mountain Majesty. "You know you'll always be part of my family, right? We all love you at my house."

Her best friend smiled weakly. "Yeah. I know. But I still want a real daddy. I don't understand why yours loves me more than mine does.

***

"I brought you a cookie, Tom Sawyer. It's a dinosaur. And blue."

The small boy hiding behind the playground's only tree looked up. His face was filthy with mucus, tears, and dust. One could only assume that he had been blubbering. He quickly wiped at his eyes before reaching for the cookie.

"Who's Tom Sawyer?" he asked, wrinkling his nose in confusion.

"I don't really know." Jean sat down next to him and crossed her legs like Ms Teacher showed them to do for Circle TIme. "My momma said that you were Tom Sawyer and that I'm Becky Thatcher, but that doesn't make sense 'cause I'm Jean. It's probably from one of her stories. Anyway. We baked the cookie for you last night. I decorated it all by myself."

The boy smiled at the last comment and eagerly bit off the dinosaur's head. Through a mouthful of sugarcookie and frosting, he mumbled, "Whygamamamagacoogie?"

Jean shrugged. "She said it'd make you smile." Just as matter-of-factly, she added, "I think you're cute when you smile."

She poured water from her metal Raggedy Anne bottle onto the edge of her floursack cut-out dress. "C'mere, TJ. Your face is gross." He screwed up his face and tried not to squirm. The grime wiped away easily, in her opinion. Ms Teacher would barely notice that he hadn't washed in a while. She was just as confident that, tied around her waist, her sweater would be able to cover the damage done to her dress. TJ wrapped his arms around her and she collapsed dramatically onto the ground.