A Different Divergent: Everyday Love

53

Soft tittering and hushed voices float down the hallway causing my fingers to still over the keyboard, and I can't help but smile. A few days back, Tessa came to me long before dawn saying she wasn't feeling well. Her little cough was heartbreaking to witness. I immediately got her some medicine then rocked her until she fell back to sleep. Not 12 short hours later, Teagan came down with the very same thing. To keep Tyler from getting it too, Tobias took him to daycare the past three days. Even though work has been crazy lately, I stayed home with the girls. I just couldn't make myself leave them. I've been digitally filing incident reports from our home office while the girls sleep but it sounds like they're finally feeling better. Out of the corner of my eye, I see them run from their room to the playroom. I file two more reports and begin a third but the sudden silence makes be get out of my chair. I'm not sure what I'm expecting but it isn't what I see. My little devils are sitting on the floor drawing on the wall.

"What do you think you two are doing?" I ask. I obviously surprise them because they both jump. Teagan drops the marker she's holding but Tessa just hides hers behind her back. "You don't draw on the walls."

"I not do it," Tessa says.

"Really?" I cross my arms across my chest and stare down my defiant two-year-old.

"No," she says, shaking her head. Teags is looking back and forth between me and her sister. "Gunnew do it."

"Gunner just drew on the walls?" They both nod eagerly. "Are you lying to me, Tessa Beatrice?" Her eyes grow wide. I think she's going to break down and tell the truth but instead she slowly shakes her head. Disappointed, I turn to her sister. "Teagan Grace? Did you draw on the walls?" Her teary eyes slide to Tessa, and I can almost hear their silent conversation.

"No," she softly says when she looks back at me.

"You are both in so much trouble," I say. "I saw you drawing on the wall with my own two eyes. Tessa, you still have the marker in your hand." She immediately drops it like it's a hot coal. I take a deep breath. "You're trying my patience. Let's go. You both are going into timeout until you can tell Mommy the truth. I'm very disappointed in you both." They start crying. "Don't even start with the tears. It's not going to work. Come on." They get to their feet and file out of the playroom and into the hall. "Downstairs. Now." They mope down the stairs like they are marching to their execution. "Tessa, you sit in the club chair. Teagan, you come with Mommy." I leave Tessa and take Teagan into the sunroom. "You sit on the loveseat." She climbs up at the end and pouts.

"Mama?" she says as I'm getting ready to leave the room. "I sowwy."

"Why are you sorry?" I have a feeling she's just feeling sorry for getting caught.

"I drawed on the wall," she says or at least that's what I think she says. I kneel down in front of her.

"You should never draw on the wall," I say. "That was wrong but that's not why I'm so upset. You and Tessa lied to me. I walked into that room and saw you drawing on the wall. When I asked you about it, you lied and told me you didn't do it." I sigh.

"I sowwy, Mama," she says, her bottom lip trembling. It goes against every instinct I have to not wrap her up in my arms right now and console her but she needs to learn a lesson.

"You sit here and think about what you did," I say. "I'll come back when you can get up." She starts bawling the moment I leave the room. If I'm lucky, she'll cry herself to sleep.

"Mama," Tessa calls out. "Mama."

"What is it, Tessa?" I ask, coming into the living room.

"I wote on the wall," she says. "I sowwy I say I didn't." I sit on the toybox and give her the same speech I just gave Teagan. "I didn't want to get in twouble."