Walls Come Down

Perfect

Harry was stuck on the ceiling and it wasn't my fault.

At least that's what I told myself.

But whether it was my fault or not didn't really matter at the moment.

"Dear is everything alright?" A honey sweet voice called from somewhere in another room.

"Just fine Nona!" I called back.

But my little brother was superglued to the ceiling fan and it really wasn't fine.

"Turn it on! Turn it on!" He jumped off the pile of boxes he had stacked onto the table and swung in a slow circle.

There was a creaking sound as the wooden fan blade bent down with his weight.

"Har you really need to get down!" I was standing on a chair, but at a mere 5'1" I wasn't tall enough to grasp the little boy swinging above me.

"I can't, not till you turn the fan onnnn," he swung his legs as he spun slowly around again.

But there was another reason he couldn't come down.

Harry had emptied an entire tube of super glue into his hands before grabbing the fan. At this point he was either going to lose his hands or the fan was coming down with him.

I sighed. There was really only one thing to do.

I jumped off the chair and went to the light switch.

I turned the fan on.

"WhoooOOOOOOO" Harry's little legs stool out straight as he was propelled in circles.

I watched the fan as it bent more with the first grader dragging it down.

I stopped the fan and hopped onto the table just in time to catch my brother as the blade bent and then cracked. The splintered wood scratched my arm as I caught Harry.

He giggled. I didn't.

Needless to say that could've gone much worse.

But Harry was down and safe and that's all that mattered.
The same couldn't be said about the fan.

"AGAIN!" Harry was bouncing in my arms, seemingly unbothered that his hands were permanently attached to a piece of wood.

"No not again! You just broke the fan Harry!" The little boy shimmied out of my arms and effortlessly jumped off the table.

"Totally worth it!" He was running upstairs before I could stop him.

I stood there for a second and just looked up at the fan.

Is this what normal people go through everyday?

I wasn't sure because I had never been normal.

I kicked the boxes off the table and proceeded to jump on them till they were flat.

Harry wasn't going to be using these for fan jumping again any time soon.

The last time it had happened I'd stashed the boxes in a closet, thinking we'd use them again next time we moved. My mistake.

Now he'd have to get a ladder somehow to reach the fan.

I wouldn't put it past him though.

I hoped Nona wouldn't look up for a while at the ceiling. But even if she did, I could just tell her it had been that way when we'd moved in.

She'd believe me. She always did.

I was her precious granddaughter who would never use her Nona's fading memory as an excuse to lie.

I wish I could say that was true.

"Darling could you make me some tea?"

I startled and turned around to see the frail woman wheeling herself into the kitchen.

"Yes of course Nona." I started our usually afternoon routine, transitioning instantly from the episode with Harry.

Take care of Harry, then keep Nona happy. If I could keep that up, then life would be good.

I poured two cups of peach tea, putting two sugars in mine and honey in Nona's. As I set them down on the table I brushed away a dirty shoe print. Nona didn't notice.

"Thank you sweetie," she said as she breathed in the steam from the tea.

"Now tell me all about your day! How is dear  Nathan?"

Nona was happy when others were happy. She always wanted me to have a good life with lots of friends and a cute boyfriend. When I came back from school everyday without anything exciting to talk about and no love stories, Nona became sad and worried about me.

And I couldn't have that.

So I had created a life.

A life for Nona's perfect Bree, where she was popular and exciting and had a perfect relationship with a perfectly imaginary boy named Nathan.

I proceeded to tell her about drama in the  lunchroom and how I was looking at dresses for spring formal and that Nathan was keeping busy with football practice.

Football is a call sport but Nona didn't know that. She just smiled and nodded as her blue eyes sparkled beneath her glasses.

I felt a small knot in my stomach form with each lie.

But Nona loved this, she always told me it was her favorite part of the day. It gave her life.

It just might kill her to know the truth.

After our conversation ended, I took the empty teacups and rinsed them in the sink.

"Any plans for tonight?" Nona said as she  came over to help dry the cups.

"Thought I might just stay in and do homework," at least that was the truth.

"Oh but Bree it's a Friday night! You don't want to spend your night here with me and Harry!"

I was reminded that I still had to figure out how to detach superglue from a child and fan-blade.

"Of course I do!" The library was closed now so there was nowhere for me to go to 'hang out with friends'.

"Maybe we could watch a movie! What about Singing in the Rain?"

Nona was Gene Kelly's biggest fan.

Her smile widened, "How did I get so lucky to have a granddaughter as perfect as you?"

I gave her a dashing smile and a hug. I didnt know how to reply.

But as she wheeled away I mumbled under my breath.

Perfect is not the word I'd use.