Lucille✔️ (Kindle version)

Childhood

Lucille

As the kids aged, so did the neighbor kids. One day, Joan was over with the kids, and we talked while Danny and Cayson played. Cayson was about seven. Patty was four.

Nate came around to the backyard.

Patty said, "Hi, Nate."

She smiled as Nate walked over and leaned over her.

"Hi, Patty," Nate said.

Out of nowhere, she turned and faced us.

"Nate's my boyfriend."

Joan's and my face contorted in surprise.

"Is this true, Nathaniel?" I asked.

He looked at me as Patty looked at him, waiting for an answer. He surprised us with his answer.

"Yep, it's true. I'm Patty's boyfriend."

She turned to Joan.

"I told you, Nate's my boyfriend."

"But why is he your boyfriend?" I asked.

"Because Nate's nice, and I like him."

Nate had a shit-eating grin on his face.

Joan took the kids home, and I started dinner. As Jonas and Cayson kept themselves busy, I cornered Nate.

"Nathaniel?"

"Yeah, Ma?"

"Is there a reason you didn't correct Patty?"

"Ma, she's four."

"She has a huge crush on you."

"It doesn't matter. It's a crush. Patty's a cute kid. She'll get over it."

Nate walked away. I had my doubts. Crushes rarely disappear, but then again, they do.

*****

I remember another time when she went swimming with Cayson and Danny. Since neither kid could swim, I stayed with them. Cayson learned how to swim. We made sure each boy had learned.

Gray wanted them to learn if we had a pool. We had inner tubes, rafts, and any other pool floatation device.

Patty played with the inner tube while the boys played in the pool. I grabbed a drink from the house while Cayson monitored Danny and Patty.

I didn't realize what happened while I stepped away until Cayson told me.

"Give me the inner tube!"

"No!"

"Let go!"

Patty let go of the inner tube, not reappearing.

"Cayson! She can't swim!"

"I got her."

Cayson dove into the water and pulled her to the surface. She coughed, spitting up water. He got her to the ladder and helped her to the pool deck.

"Are you okay?"

Cayson checked her to make sure she was okay.

"I don't want to swim anymore."

She jutted out her bottom lip.

"I want to go home."

"Okay," Cayson said.

He got out of the pool and yelled for me. I came out of the house, and he told me what had happened. It was the first time I had seen Cayson upset. Usually, he doesn't get upset, but this incident upset him.

I sent Danny and Patty home, then called Joan to explain what had happened. I didn't need her upset with me.

After Cayson changed, I found out some information.

"Cayson, Patty is okay. You did an astonishing thing."

"Ma, Patty might be annoying, but she wasn't bothering us. Danny wanted an item that Patty had. He took something from her, knowing she can't swim."

I realized why the pool incident had bothered him. I phoned Joan and got her perspective, and she said it was typical of the two of them. They fought, but Danny loved his sister. They're siblings, and this is part of their relationship. He didn't expect her to relinquish control.

We never consider the likelihood of anything negative happening until it does. My boys were many things, but they would never hurt someone.

*****

Now Jonas would tease her. Since Patty's a tomboy, he gave her the nickname Peppermint Patty after the Peanuts characters.

She hated it, which made Jonas want to do it even more. Every time he saw her, he would yell, "Peppermint Patty!"

The other boys would laugh, causing her to get upset.

"Quit calling me that!"

"Nah, it's too much fun."

Jonas grinned as Cayson laughed. Patty would storm off. Nate would come home, find out, and beat Jonas's ass for it, along with Cayson for laughing.

"Dude, what's your problem?" Jonas asked.

"She's not bothering anyone. Why do you need to laugh and make fun of her?" Nate asked.

"Because that's what we do. You ran over the neighborhood cats. You blowing up Patty's Barbie dolls with M-80s wouldn't be acceptable behavior."

"First, those are stray cats. Who cares? Second, those were black cat firecrackers, not M-80s. Dad would beat my ass if he thought I was messing around with M-80s."

"Who cares? Patty is like our little sister we never had. So what if we tease her? She needs to grow a thicker skin," Cayson said.

"Whatever."

Nate stormed off as I shook my head. Only a little girl riles my boys this way. They saw Patty as a sister. While they had their moments with her, they also fought like siblings.

*****

It also brought a time when Joan and Patty were over. Patty wandered into Nate's room.

Nate had gotten into model cars and spent hours building them. As Joan and I talked, we weren't aware Patty broke one. Nate came home, went into his room, and found her with a broken model. His temper flared.

"Patty! What did you do?"

"I'm sorry, Nate. I was looking at it."

"You broke my model! It's not a toy! Why? Why would you do that? You're such a klutz!"

Patty cried as Nate yelled. We check out the commotion. We heard him yelling at her while the broken model sat on his dresser.

"Look at what she did, Ma!"

"Nathaniel."

"I don't want her in my room anymore!"

Patty ran over to Joan.

Joan said, "We'll pay for the broken model. I'm sorry about it getting broken, Nate."

He furrowed his brows at her as she took Patty out of the room.

"It's a model. We can replace it."

"I worked hard on it. It's not a model, Ma."

He walked over to it, picking it up.

"It's like she doesn't care. It's not hers, so why would she care how it made me feel?"

"Then you understand how she felt about her Barbies."

Nate stared at me.

"One day, you'll realize it's an item, but people have feelings like you do."

With that, I left his room.

The broken model had upset Nate, but he needed to see the bigger picture. One day, he would. I hope.