Wonderstruck

Chapter 1

Tommy and Billy run around the house. Billy is chasing his screaming brother with a ball he's threatening to throw at him. It was a baseball that Tommy had thrown at Billy in anger. Billy was upset but he was used to his twin's outbursts and he wasn't going to do anything about it until Tommy started laughing at him for complaining that it hurt. And claimed he was a cry baby and that it wouldn't hurt if it hit him. That their dad wouldn't have started another family if he was better at catching a ball. So, Billy picked up the ball and demanded, "Apologize!"

Tommy was screaming that his brother couldn't take a joke and Billy asked him to apologize. To take back the claim about their father. "Gosh you're so sensitive!" Tommy screams as he stops in front of a wall. Seeing red, Billy lunges the ball at his brother. He dodges it and the ball flies through the wall behind him.

Wanda hears the loud noise from her home office. It snaps her out of her work daze. She was in the middle of measuring the model pieces to the blueprint she had drawn up. She drops everything and runs to find out what is happening in her house. She walks in to find her two boys yelling and blaming each other. She sees the gaping hole and a broken picture frame on the ground. It was a family portrait.

The last one before everything in her family had fallen apart. It was taken two years ago. She was a naive woman in that image. Her husband was three years deep in an affair. Shortly after this photo, he revealed that he got his teaching assistant pregnant. That he was leaving to be there for his new family. He claimed that Wanda had been cold and distant with him since their daughter was stillborn. He said that he was a man and had needs that she couldn't meet anymore.

Wanda sighs and the boys stand still, terrified of what she's going to do and how she's going to punish them. Instead, she walks away into the garage and returns with a sledge hammer. She swings it against the wall, creating a bigger problem. She remembers when he painted the wall the color she didn't like and made her feel guilty that she didn't like it. "You never appreciate when I do nice things for you," he complained. "You should be grateful I did it at all."

As she whacks the wall, she hears every complaint and condescending comment her ex-husband ever made. When she's exhausted, she drops the head of the hammer on the picture. Destroying the frame further. She turns to her flabbergasted boys and offers them the hammer. "What? You don't want a turn?" The boys remain silent and Wanda shrugs and drops the tool on the ground. "Go get cleaned up, we're getting take out for dinner tonight." She walks through the living room, leaving her kids behind to grab her things.

A few days later, Pietro is visiting his sister as well as giving his daughter time to bond with her cousins. He sips his beer and stares at the destroyed wall. He looks at his twin and asks what that is. Wanda pops open a bottle for herself. "I'm renovating," she says and after, she takes a long drink.

"You know that's not up to code, right?" He says, eyeing his sister with concern. Wanda shrugs without a care. She knows all about the proper ways of construction. Their father taught the two everything he knew about construction. She didn't need her brother's input. He knows that, but he didn't know how to get his sister to open up to him. It seemed that since her marriage fell apart she has shut everyone out. "Do you have a plan for it? You can't leave that wall like that for too long. It isn't safe for you or the kids."

Wanda takes another swig as she stares at the broken wall. "I'm drawing something up. Don't worry about me, brother."

"I am worried about you, Wands. What's gotten into you?" Pietro asks, desperate to connect with her.

She looks at him with empty eyes as she shrugs again. "I wanted a change so I'm making one. It's no big deal." She finishes her bottle and gets up to retrieve another. There aren't any left. She sighs as she grabs her keys. "I'm going to go pick up some more drinks, do you mind watching the kids?"