Reflections of Light

Story Time

Luci had a headache.

She put it down to the weather, the low overhanging clouds being enough to press on anyone's brain.
Life was pretty dull, she was sitting around here babysitting someone she despised, and Billy's obvious dislike of their situation was seriously beginning to seep into his behaviour, having him up the ante on his usual pranks and tricks to an almost vengeful level.

Speaking of which, the small boy wandered into the kitchen a second later, looking around before running up to her and hopping up into her lap.

Luci kissed the top of his head. "Hey, Sweetie. What you got there?"

Billy showed her it was his Peter Pan book, looking excited.

Luci chuckled. "I should have guessed."

"Read it!" Billy said expectantly, excitedly hopping up and down on her lap.

"What, again? Don't you know it by heart by now?"

Billy shook his head. "Nuh uh! I wanna hear it 'gain! You read it better, an'... An' I like when you do da voices,  an' you know da big words, an'... An' all dat stuff!"

Luci chuckled, taking the book from him and opening it up to the first page, before stopping.
"How about a different one? You've got lots of story books, why don't you go get another one."

"But Peter Pan is my favouritest!"

"Favouritest isn't a word, Sweetie. Also, Mummy read this book to you last night. And two days ago. And quite a lot of times before that, as well."

"Yeah, but you didn't finish it yesterday."

"Didn't I? Oh well, I think you probably know what happens by now. Go on, go grab The Wizard of Oz or something."

"No, it's stupid."

"No its not, it's quite similar to Peter Pan."

Billy looked sceptical. "How so?"

"Well... It's got a magical land that you have to fly through the air to get to.
And it's got all sorts of magical creatures..."

"Da Wizard is not even a real wizard!"

"Yeah, but there's the witches, they're pretty cool."

"No. What kind of person gets defeated by a bucket of water? Dats an idiot weakness, what happens if it rains?"

"Yes, but..."

"An' the tin man story is stupid. A magical witch curses his axe to cut his arms and legs off, an' he replaces dem wif metal ones, but den when he cuts his body up an' his head off, he gets dem replaced wif metal too, but dats not right because how would he be alive?"

" Yeah, I think you're thinking too hard about this... "

"And da stupid Emerald city is not even actually emeralds! It's not even green!"

"Okay, Alice in Wonderland it is!" Luci said, clapping her hands together.

"No, Dat's even worser!" Billy groaned. " 's not got an actual story! I don't get it!"

"Yeah, but you like the Jabberwocky poem."

Billy groaned dramatically. "I don't want it!"

Luci rubbed her temples with her fingertips. "Look, Mummy's got a headache, and is having a hard time at the moment. Just pick something we'll both like, and I'll read it to you."

"Peter Pan!"

"Variety is a good thing. Healthy, even."

"All the other stories are stupid!"

"What, all of them, really? I don't think that's true."

"Yes. Dey are all yucky soppy romance stories, and dats borin'."

"The Wizard of Oz isn't a romance story, Alice in Wonderland isn't a romance story, The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe isn't a romance story, Hansel and Gretel isn't a romance story, Jack and the Beanstalk isn't a romance story, The Snow Queen isn't a romance story... You like all of them, don't you?"

"No, I hate them all!"

"Yeah, but you don't actually mean that, you're just saying that because you want Peter Pan."

"Yes! I want Peter Pan!"

Luci sighed. "Fine. But next time, we read one of the others, okay?"

She picked up the book, sighing exasperatedly.
Sometimes she wondered about her sons obsession with this book.