“Hey, Faust, can you tell?” Asher’s tone is playful, and Musiea can already tell that nothing good is going to come out of his mouth. Still, his brother takes the bait.
“What, that you’re an idiot?”
“No, that’s you! But since you’re dumb, I’ll tell you...” He pauses, and even without looking, Musiea can tell he’s producing an object of some sort. Ah, prop comedy... “My pencil is way bigger than yours.”
Faust erupts into a fit of laughter, and Musiea’s head snaps toward the kitchen table, where her boys are having their off-color exchange...it’s even worse than she thought. Not only does the devilish grin on Asher’s face make it clear that he’s making an anatomical joke, but he’s placed the writing implement in a way that’s certainly not appropriate for the table...or anywhere, really. Gods, they’re only eight years old and their humor is already so crude. She can’t even begin to imagine how horrific the teenage years will be.
“Boys, I told you to put your school supplies in your backpacks!” she tells them, choosing not to acknowledge the rude humor. “And for that matter, where’s your sister? Don’t tell me you managed to convince her that school doesn’t start until tomorrow, or something like that...”
“Aw, man!” Faust laments. “Why didn’t you give me that idea yesterday, Mom? We totally could have pulled it off!”
“No way, she’d kill us!” Asher protests. “Or she’d make us wish we were dead...but she was just in her room, and it sounded like she was up and out of bed, at least.”
“Yeah, she told us to go away,” Faust says. “She said if we didn’t, she’d come up with something even worst that when she put thumbtacks in our pillows...”
“Can you blame us for not wanting to test her?” Asher asks. “That seriously hurt, if you recall!”
Musiea sighs, able to recall the incident quite well. Little did she know that when she brought little Meredith into the world, she’d be giving birth to a little girl with an absolutely diabolical yet brilliant mind. Instead of running off and tattling like most little sisters do to their big brothers, Meredith is able to channel her frustration into highly effective revenge. It’s almost scary how quickly she can improvise, too. That’s not to say that Meri isn’t a good girl; she absolutely is. Though her tolerance for nonsense and tomfoolery is a bit higher than Musiea’s, the price for engaging in such things is much higher, as far as Meredith is concerned.
“I’ll go see what she’s up to,” Musiea says. “In the meantime, you may want to go let your father know you’re up and ready for breakfast.” Knowing how the twins can eat, she doesn’t think she’ll need to ask them twice, and she goes to check on their little sister.
She opens the door to Meredith’s room and what she sees is quite unexpected indeed. She’s fully dressed and ready for school, looking positively adorable in the outfit she’d picked out for her first day of kindergarten, but she’s sitting down in front of the floor-length mirror in her room and crying. Fortunately, Musiea is able to identify what’s upsetting her fairly quickly.
All three of Musiea’s beloved children had been fortunate enough to inherit that thick and beautiful silver hair from their father...but having such thick hair comes with its own set of problems. When Meredith was little, it was easier keeping her hair short, but she’d expressed interest in having longer hair earlier in that year. Now, it falls to just slightly past her chin, and Musiea often catches her admiring it.
At this moment, though, Meredith is quite upset with her hair. With it being tousled and tangled from sleep, Musiea knows quite well that it can be tough running a brush through such thick hair...and in this case, it was too tough, and the brush got stuck.
“Oh no, sweetheart...” Musiea rushes to Meredith’s side and helps her up. “Is that why you told your big brothers to go away?”
Meredith nods. “They would make fun of me and call me a baby for crying about it! I was just trying to be responsible, but...it got stuck...!” Her lower lip quivers, and Musiea can see how hard she’s working to prevent any further tears.
“Meri, sweetie...” she says gently. “You’re very responsible! You got dressed and ready for school without any help, and without anyone telling you to. That’s very grown up! And who cares what Faust and Asher call you? They’ll laugh at anything, even things that aren’t even that funny. But even so, they’re your big brothers. Even if they say some silly things sometimes, the fact is that they love you...just like I do, and like Daddy does. Now let’s see about getting this brush out of your hair!”
She carefully works the brush out, and then she goes in to gently work out the problematic knot with her fingers. Since she’s got a better view, it doesn’t take her long. “There, that’s better. Now let’s brush your beautiful hair...” She begins lightly brushing at the ends with the brush. “If you start from the bottom and work your way up, it’ll be easier to brush out. You won’t get such big knots on the way down.”
“Start at the bottom...and work my way up,” Meredith repeats, focusing on her reflection. “I’ll try to remember that...”
“If not, you can ask me or Daddy to help you,” Musiea tells her. “Daddy might actually be better, since you got that pretty hair from him! He knows all about it.”
Even so, she manages to brush out all the knots, and with a smile, she runs her fingers affectionately through her daughter’s hair and gives her a kiss on the head. “There, that’s much better! You look lovely, Meri.”
Meredith doesn’t respond, instead looking at her reflection with what seems to be worry. “All right, what’s bothering you, my sweet girl? And don’t try to hide that there’s something on your mind. I can tell you’re upset about something more than just a brush getting stuck in your hair.”
She sighs, looking down at her feet, speaking up hesitantly after a moment. “Do you think...people at school will, um...like me?”
Musiea’s eyes widen. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because. Sometimes I get cranky with people, and I’m not always patient. I have trouble controlling my temper, and I’m a little clumsy. Then I cry more than I probably should...lots of things like that. It seems like I’d be a lot of trouble to be friends with, that’s all.”
For a moment, Musiea is stunned...so many of the worries Meredith just expressed to her are the same ones that Musiea herself often had as a little girl. Maybe she’d passed down her tendency to doubt her self-worth to her daughter.
Well...if that’s the case, then she should do what she can to try and pick Meredith back up from feeling so down.
“Hey, you know what we should do, Meri?” she asks warmly. “We should do something different with your hair, since today is such a big day!” She remembers the little gift she’d picked out for Meredith some time before, that’s now in her pocket, and she produces the little barrette with a ribbon on the front of it. “Silly me, I can’t believe I almost forgot to give this to you!”
Meredith blinks in surprise. “A bow?”
“Yeah! Let’s see how it looks...” She carefully takes a section of Meredith’s soft, silver hair and pins it back, fastening the barrette in securely. “There. Just as I though, it looks really good on you!”
Meredith’s expression has lightened just a little, but not entirely. So often, Musiea feels like she’s just floundering through motherhood...but on occasion, she does know exactly what to say. This is one such moment.
She sits down cross-legged on the floor and holds out her arms. “Now come here, my darling girl. I want to tell you a story.” Meredith immediately climbs into her mother’s lap and snuggles up against her. Musiea envelops her daughter in a loving hug, laughing softly as Meredith nuzzles into her chest. “I don’t know if you knew this, but I was about the same age as you are now when I first met your daddy.”
“You’ve known Daddy for that long?!”
“I have! And back then, he was just as grumpy, but just as kind. He was just as wild, but just as caring...he liked his jokes and his teasing, but he didn’t like to see me sad. And...I had just gone through something very scary and upsetting. You think you cry a lot? There were times that I cried for hours and hours on end. I’d cry and cry until after the fact, it felt like I didn’t have any tears left.”
“That’s a lot of crying,” Meredith murmurs. “I’m sorry you were so sad...”
“Well, I’m okay now,” Musiea assures her. “But at the time, I didn’t think I’d ever be happy again. One day, though, after he left the place where we lived and came back later that day, he gave me something: it was a bow a lot like this one. He helped me put it in my hair - I was clumsy too - and suddenly, I didn’t feel so much like crying. Do you know why, Meredith?”
“Um...because it looked pretty?”
“That may have been part of it...but I think the real reason was that someone who I barely knew at the time still cared enough about me to want to see me smile instead of cry.” She sighs. “Back then, I was scared and I felt like...like nobody loved me. But I learned that even at times where you feel so utterly alone and unloved, there will always be someone who cares enough to want to see you happy. A kind person who can’t stand to see someone suffering all alone. Even if you don’t know that person very well, they still exist and they’ll be at your side!”
“Even if nobody in my class likes me?”
Musiea smiles and leans down to kiss her little girl on the forehead. “I don’t think that’s going to be the case at all, Meredith. You’re smart, you’re funny, you’re good at games you play outside and games you play inside! You come up with great ideas, and you always try your best. Even if you cry more than you’d like and you can be a little clumsy, there are so many more wonderful things about you that the things about you that you think aren’t that great don’t matter. You just show everyone what an amazing person you are and work on being the best that you can be. Have confidence in yourself! And remember that no matter what happens, you’ll always be coming back home, and your father, your brothers, and I will be there and we love you so, so much! So please, Meredith...have all the love for yourself that we have for you.”
For a moment, Meredith just stares up at her silently, but then, she smiles. “Okay! I can do it. I don’t know what got into me there. I’m great!” She stands up and looks in the mirror, posing with her shoulders squared and her hands on her hips in a way that’s so cute, Musiea can’t help but laugh. “I don’t have to worry about you and Daddy knowing that, but if Faust and Asher can’t see that with their dumb brains, they’re going to get it worse than the time they found the picture I painted and drew butts all over it!”
Musiea sighs. “Yes, I...I do remember that. But please don’t ever put chili powder in their underpants ever again...”
“I know, I won’t. Like I said...they’re gonna get it worse.“
In the mirror, Musiea can see that her daughter is grinning, and she gasps. That diabolical grin is identical to one she’s seen on Escher’s face countless times, and seeing it on Meredith still shocks her.
“If...if I might make a suggestion, Meredith...” Musiea says, laughing nervously. “Maybe don’t bring out Scary Meri until some people have gotten to know you a little better. That face is kind of terrifying...” She remembers something, and she stands up quickly. “Oh no, speaking of your brothers...I don’t smell breakfast. Which means they still haven’t bothered Daddy for it, and they’ve been left to their own devices...”
“No way! Mommy, how could you be so careless?!”
“I-I’m not exactly perfect, Meredith!”
They rush to the kitchen, and it’s even worse that Musiea anticipated. There’s cereal and milk all over, and both of the twins are covered in it, meaning their back-to-school outfits are not going to be wearable today.
“I’m not going to let myself die at the hands of a cereal killer!” Faust declares loudly. “For I am Faust, the Milky Mass Murderer!”
“Well, you’re bad at your job, then!” Asher shoots back. “There’s only one of me! Some mass murderer you are! Prepare to die, because you’re toast!”
“Not if I kill you bread!”
Both of them make a dash for the bread box, and by then, Musiea has recovered from the shock.
“What are you two doing?!” she shouts at them. They stop, both turning to look at hear, both sets of blue eyes wide with fear. “Wasting food and making a mess?! You boys are going to clean this up right now!!”
“Aw, come on, Mom!” Asher protests. “We were just playing around!”
“Yeah, and our banter was really good too!” Faust chimes in. “Didn’t you hear the jokes?”
“I don’t care if you’re voted the best comedic duo on the planet!” Musiea tells them. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get to cleaning all of that up right this second. Unless, of course, you want your father to come in here and see what you’ve done to his kitchen...”
She’s never seen any children ever run so quickly to grab cleaning implements in all her days. Nobody gets away with trashing Escher’s domain, that’s to be sure.
Meredith seems to agree, sighing heavily. “Fools, both of them. I’m glad their dumb idiot brains aren’t contagious...”
Faust and Asher manage to avoid Escher’s wrath and get themselves cleaned up, and they make their way to school. The boys have no trouble finding their classroom, and she and Escher accompany Meredith to hers.
Watching her eyes light up as she gets shown her very own cubby for her belongings, and as she sees a big table with a spot labeled “Meredith” in her new teacher’s cute lettering, she can’t hide her excitement. However, as Musiea talks a bit with the teacher, she overheard something that causes her to worry.
“I’ve never seen hair like yours before...”
Musiea knows, even before she fully turns, that her own daughter is being addressed. Sure enough, a group of three little girls has approached Meredith, and they’re all looking at her with intrigue. She silently urges Meri to remember the talk they had this morning, hoping she’ll pick up on it even from across the room.
“Yeah, it’s pretty different,” Meredith says. “But I like it! My daddy has hair just like this and everyone says he’s handsome. Then my mommy gave me this bow today. It’s cute, right?”
One of the girls, a blue-eyed blonde with her hair tied up into pigtails, smiles broadly. “Yeah, it is! I love bows and things like that! And it looks good with your hair color!”
“I have my daddy’s hair too,” another girl, an adorable redhead with green eyes and freckles, says with a pout. “But yours is way prettier! Plus I have freckles like him and I don’t like them...”
“Don’t say that,” Meredith tells her. “Freckles are cute, and your hair color is pretty!”
The redhead thanks her, and the third girl, a brunette with curly hair, chimes in. “It looks super soft. Can I touch it?”
“It is really soft!” Meredith tells her. “Touch away!”
Musiea sighs in relief, and she sees the worry fade from Escher’s expression too. Thank goodness that went so well...she smiles, taking Escher’s hand and giving it a light squeeze.
She feels a sense of pride, knowing that she has such a thoughtful, smart, and happy little girl who’s beautiful both inside and out. Yes...Meredith is going to be just fine.
