“Drawing in the dirt! Drawing in the dirt! I’m drawing in the dirt!” Little Juniper sang as she drew in the dirt with a stick she found. “Draw up! Draw down. Draw in the dirt all around!”
From flowers to butterflies to fish to trees to imaginary things; Juniper drew them all. A little budding artist could work with any medium after all! And her absolute favorite was dirt.
“June!” A voice called to her.
Popping her head up, Juniper saw her MaPa wave to her.
“MaPop!” Little Juniper cried out in delight. “Look look! I made things!”
MaPa walked over as Juniper pointed with enthusiasm. Her chubby arm was waving all around as she pointed to her grand canvas. As MaPa got closer, a smile grew on their face.
“Oh how lovely! My Little Junebug your drawings are wonderful.” They said, squatting down to the young child.
“Yeah!” Juniper grinned.
MaPa chuckled.
“Is Mama coming? I wan’ her to see!” Juniper spoke fast, mouth fumbling with the word ‘want.’
MaPa glanced up, a mischievous smile taking place. “Why don’t you go ask her?” They pointed out to a tree.
Juniper squinted. The light of the day shining in her eyes. The creak bubbling by occasionally made the shine brighter. It was hard for Juniper to see exactly where MaPa was pointing to. So Juniper looked around the tree.
Was Mama over by the bench where Kyle was sitting with his Auntie in his wheelchair? No. Mama definitely wasn’t running with the joggers with their cool metal legs. Mama hates to run. Mama wasn’t with the bird watchers who come every Tuesday. Mama goes with the bird watchers that come every Thursday.
Juniper blinked hard and tried to look at the tree again. There! Mama’s pretty yellow and green dress was blowing in the wind!
“Mama!” Juniper cried with joy as she jumped up. Carful to go around her art, she ran right to her Mama.
She slammed right into her Mama, hugging her legs with every bit of strength she had.
“Oh my little Juniper. Did you miss me?” Mama’s soothing voice asked her.
“A little bit.” Juniper said. She’s a big girl, and while she doesn’t need to be with her Mama all the time, she still loves her Mama and misses her.
Mama laughed her soft laugh that Juniper loved and ruffled Juniper’s already ruffled hair. Oh! Mama pulled out a stick!
“How did that get there?” Mama asked.
Juniper just made a noise sounding like a ‘I don’t know.’
Juniper finally looked up, but then froze. Wide eyed.
Tears burst from her eyes as Juniper started to sob.
“June!” Mama shifted her to be held in Mama’s arms. “June baby what’s wrong?”
MaPa came over with worry on their face. “Baby what’s wrong?” They asked.
Juniper pointed to the direction of Mama’s face. “Ma-Ma-ma sh-she-“ Juniper hiccuped, “she don’ have her bear no more!”
As she cried her parents blinked before understanding.
“Oh honey,” Mama cooed. “I just wanted to have a little change, that’s all.”
“That’s right our Little June bug, Mama looks quite dapper.” MaPa said, rubbing Juniper’s back.
Juniper momentarily stopped crying. “What’s dapper?” She asked.
Her parents smiled with amusement in their eyes. “It means fancy love.” Mama said.
Her saying that caused Juniper to look at her again. She then promptly burst into tears once more.
Mama and MaPa began shushing her in their ‘I’m here it’s okay’ way as they swayed together back and forth back and forth back and forth the way Juniper liked it.
But Juniper wasn’t happy. No Juniper was sad and some other things she didn’t know. Instead of the fluffy beard Mama had, she got a mustache instead! It wasn’t the same! And because the fluffy beard was gone and it wasn’t the same Juniper didn’t like it.
So Juniper said “I want Mama’s bear back.”
“Aww baby, Mama can grow her beard back.” Mama said.
“Really?” Juniper asked, rubbing her eye.
“Really.” MaPa said. “Hair likes to grow you know.”
Little Juniper pouted, but nodded. Okay, Mama can grow her beard back. “Okay! You can grow it back now!”
“Juniper, sweetheart, it takes a while.” Mama said.
“… tomorrow?” Juniper asked shyly.
“Longer than tomorrow sweet pea.” MaPa said.
Tiny lips wobbled as crystal clear tears started to well up in Juniper’s eyes. Mama shifted Juniper in her arms. Now the child was on Mama’s hip.
“I’m sorry for not letting you know that I was going to shave today. I wanted it to be a surprise.” Mama apologized.
The small nose sniffled. “A surprise?”
Mama nodded with a hum. “I thought you would like it.”
Juniper pouted as she shook her head. She didn’t like it one bit.
MaPa hummed. “Well, your Mama wanted to do something different for herself as well. Don’t you want Mama to do something that she likes?”
Juniper thought for a moment. Then nodded. She wanted her Mama to be happy. What she didn’t notice was her parents doing the face communication on what should be told to a child. They stopped when Juniper looked back up at them.
“I don’t like it… but I want Mama to be happy.” Juniper said solemnly.
Mama kissed Juniper on her forehead, the mustache tickling in a way that the beard had done before.
“How about this,” Mama started, “next time I decide to change my style, from a beard to a mustache or even nothing at all, I’ll let you know first. No surprises.”
Juniper liked this more. But then she scrunched up her nose. “Mama not having a bear on her face? Or a catipiler? Tha’s weird. Your face is naked if you do.”
Both Mama and MaPa blinked at that then laughed. “I suppose not having a bear or a caterpillar on my face would be weird.”
Juniper nodded rather seriously. Mama was prettier with her beard. But maybe Juniper would think Mama would look just as pretty with the mustache. After all, it takes time to adjust to change.
“Come on now darling, you need a bath. One with water. I don’t think your dirt bath did anything.” MaPa said.
That caused Juniper to gasp. That’s right! Dirt!
“Mama! Mama! I gotta show you my art!”
Together the family of three went to the drawings. They ooed and awed at what Juniper created. Later they would go home just the other side of the park. They would go have baths and have dinner at the community room in their apartment building. And later on in the night they would wake little Juniper up to let her see the summer night stars during the designated black out. And in the morning Juniper would hug her mother and say “I think your catipiller need to be brushed.”
———
So some notes on this is that this was created for @solarpunkaestheticweek for the aesthetic week. While I did plan on trying to draw a picture once a day, I figure writing a short story would be good enough. And I couldn’t get this idea out of my head. Juniper and this story is actually based off of a couple of things that happened to me when I was a little girl. My mom suddenly came home having chopped off her long hair to be super short and had it dyed! And toddler me did not like it one bit because it was different! I cried like how Juniper cried. The other inspiration was the opposite of Juniper. I liked it whenever my dad was clean shaven and hated it when he grew out his stubble. As for Juniper’s parents, her MaPa is non-binary and when Juniper started calling MaPa, MaPa it just stuck. As for Juniper’s Mama, you the reader can interpret her as trans, intersex, a cisgender woman who just happens to have facial hair, or anything else. I hope you’ve enjoyed the story!
