Clover Undercover

FOUND

The rain is falling in lazy, fat drops that make the air thick and my hair frizz.

Elliot is stretched out on the couch flipping through a Minecraft magazine and Bella is on her third bowl of popcorn; all of her attention on a pretty lady named Meekah who's teaching her about buoyancy.

Dad is in his office on a conference call with Thayer.

Dad.

That name still feels so strange to think about. To say it out loud is even weirder but ever since I got the courage to, every day it comes out easier than the last.

"I'm bored," I say, smacking Eli's magazine while I walk by to plop down on the recliner beside him.

"Then go do something."

I stick my leg out and wiggle my sock-covered toes into the side of his neck.

"Not that," he growls, pushing my foot away.

I sigh and look out the window. "You're boring."

"You're annoying."

"You're snoring!" Bella chimes in with a smirk.

"You're rhyming!" I say back at her.

Eli lets out a loud, annoyed breath and Bella sticks her tongue out at him before turning back to her show.

I sit and simply stare at them for a moment. Life has changed so drastically these last few months that I hardly recognize the kids in front of me, but what I'm seeing now is something I had once prayed for.

To me, Bella's always been like water. Like a river, flowing through every rise and fall; bending at every curve and never slowing down. Never relenting to the rocks that appear in her way, she simply carves herself a path around them and flows on.

Even though that tenacity got her through the worst days after losing mom, she is still simply water, and I was starting to feel her slipping through my fingers.

But then Dad came in the picture and Bella's transformed into a waterfall. Still bounding over rocks and gushing joyously but confined. She's bound to a structure that Dad molded for her and she's flourishing as she pours herself into him and not into her grief.

Elliot... he's always been like air. Invisible yet present. He can whip himself up into a frenzy and tear down everything in his path with one heavy blow yet be as gentle as a summer breeze carrying dandelion seeds across a meadow.

Raging winds that screamed was all I saw for a long time after mom, and again, now that Dad's presence in our lives has become a permanent fixture, I see that easiness settling back into my brother. How smiles and laughs breeze from him.

That wild updraft is still present, but I see the relief in his eyes when his chest fills with pain, and he knows he has a safe place to breathe it out. Dad has proved no matter how hard Eli blows up, he's unmovable, and that certainty has settled the storms within Elliot.

I look at them, and I see peace.

The rain pitter patters against the window, and I get an idea that makes me light up on the inside.

"I smell something...." I say, trying my best to look concerned.

Eli and Bella look to me and it's Eli who looks serious as he asks, "What?"

"I smell..... wet dog..."

Bella gasps and all but throws her popcorn bowl to the side as she jumps to her feet and squeals while Elliot lets his magazine fall on his face with a groan.