Amelia

Dinosaurs

After knocking on the door twice, Andrew placed his fists inside of his pockets and waited. He stared at the small butterfly plaque on the door that read "Amelia's room" in pink bubbly lettering. This wasn't exactly a situation Andrew was used to being in, so he had decided to knock again. Before his hand made contact with the door, Amelia, sniffling, opened the door. With his hand wavering in the air, he took the opportunity to get a good look at her. Her eyes were puffy due to recent tears that took refuge in the bags under her eyes, her bottom lip was quavering, trying so hard not to break down again. A single tear got loose from her right eye, and was beginning to make a train track down her cheek. Andrew instinctively wiped it away, and her emerald eyes stared deep into his plain brown ones making his heart skip a beat.

             Surprisingly, without quite knowing why, Andrew felt very vulnerable and self conscious. He smoothed down the caramel waves that were standing upright in bunches on his head, and he cleared his throat. After fixing his hair, he placed his hands back into the safe place of his pockets. Shyly, a friendly smile appeared on his face, but as he watched Amelia turn her back to him, the smile disappeared just as quickly as it had came. On her way to her bed, she kicked an empty bottle of water lying on the ground, causing it to fly across the room which almost hit Charlie on his back. She gasped slightly, the first noise Andrew had heard erupt from her lips, and even that sound made the voice of an angel sound horrendous. She continued her path to her bed, plopped down, and crossed her arms against her chest, hugging herself in a great embrace of sadness. Her sad face looked at the water bottle on the floor, and Andrew, unsure if he was welcome in this festivity of despair, took a small, hesitant step inside. With no sign of objection from Amelia, he made his way into her room and took in the surroundings around him.

        The walls of Amelia's room were as calming as a beautiful cloudless day, one that reminded Andrew of picnics in the park with both of his parents. The fairy lights twinkling and glittering reminded him of the summer campfires his father built for Andrew and his mother, Claire, to create decadent s'mores with. However, the girl on the bed trying her hardest not to break down spoke most to his heart. The memories of his father came clearly straight to his mind. He recalled the time when he saw his father, Daniel, packing a bag in secret. Even though Andrew was the young age of five at the time, he knew that Daniel wasn't packing for a small vacation or a job trip; Andrew knew Daniel wouldn't be coming back. This was evident because Daniel had tears cascading from his brown eyes, and he held a picture of Andrew smiling brightly close up to his heart. He also saw a small envelope with one single word, "Claire", written on it laying on her side of the bed. Well, I guess the whole bed would be hers soon enough, anyways. Andrew knew this wasn't a situation he should be viewing, so he made his way slowly down the hall towards his room. Instead of watching the crime scene, he played with his dinosaur toys, making a small family out of them. The daddy dinosaur stayed at home all the time to play with the baby dinosaur. There was no mistress dinosaur, only a mommy dinosaur which daddy dinosaur loved with all of his heart.

    Andrew plopped down on the bed next to Amelia as the memories cascaded through his mind. That night, with the dinosaurs, was the last night he had ever seen his father. He put his arms tightly around Amelia, due to the fact that her face reminded him so much of his mother's after she read the letter from that no good, lousy, cheater. Andrew had known for a while at age five of his father's affair with Jessica. Andrew was playing with trucks in the backyard when Claire had to work late at her hospital, and Daniel was inside with his work friend, Jessica, getting him juice. He looked in the kitchen window, hoping to see Daniel getting his apple juice, but instead he saw  Daniel's lips meeting Jessica's. Andrew screamed, and Daniel dropped the glass, which made pieces of glass shatter everywhere. After this incident, both of the cheaters were especially kind to Andrew; Jessica bought Andrew gifts occasionally, and Daniel would always give Andrew a new dinosaur every time he went out with her. He had twenty three dinosaurs by the time Daniel chose to leave.