Chenford + “What if one day I wake up and you don’t?”
Lucy hears Mickey’s voice as she turns into the living room, an emotion on which she can’t stick a label lodging in her throat and burning achingly. She assumes her preschooler has finally put her adorable toddler logic to the test and noodled her way to some conclusions - based both on Tim’s ‘Career Day’ presentaton from last week and her two hundred repeat viewings of Sleeping Beauty. [True, she’s only really attached to Merryweather’s snark, but she must catch a few other aspects too.]
Mickey’s not hitting Tim up to fill her in on the darker corners of life, though. When Lucy notices the audience member who's focusing raptly, she can’t determine if discovering her husband would’ve been better or worse than this reality.
Their daughter’s sprawled on the carpet, set up with a bowl of Lucky Charms, marshmallows tumbling from her spoon every few seconds and landing on Kojo’s nose: she’s touching her forehead to his, like maybe - if she's lucky - this position will deposit his answer directly into her mind. Aiming his tongue, he traps a moon before he licks her cheek. “Daddy says I’m getting a big bed soon. It’s hard for you to jump in my small bed. But I like helping you.” She scoots back, fixing him securely in her tiny, serious line of sight. “My new bed will probably be - ” she reaches one hand as far up as her torso will stretch “ - this tall. I can’t carry you. You’ll have to sleep somewhere new. You have to be okay for a long time, okay?” She throws her arms around Kojo’s fuzzy neck awkwardly from where she’s still lying flat in front of him.
Lucy blinks to clear her suddenly misted vision. “Daddy in his office?” She kisses both of her babies; Mick nods around the mouthful of cereal she’s just shoved in. “Smaller bites, ladybug.”
Then she heads upstairs to talk Tim into adopting a puppy as soon as possible.
i enjoy this little snippet immensely, so it’s also been added to with hope in your heart (you’ll never walk alone) as Part xi. You can read/leave some love here, if you feel so inspired!
