Another Little Secret
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Copyright © Jade Archer, 2011
All Rights Reserved, Total-E-Ntwined Limited, T/A Totally Bound Publishing.
Free Story: Another Little Secret
(
A Short Valentine’s Addition to Sandpipers’ Secrets)
Chapter One
Brody toed off his shoes at the door and stepping into the bright, open space—readying himself for just about anything. Picking up Wolf from preschool tended to be a full contact sport most days. He’d become extraordinarily good at protecting the family jewels from enthusiastic tackle hugs.
Forced to duck his head slightly to avoid a low hanging…something colourful and artistic suspended from the ceiling, Brody glanced around as he made his way into the room. It smelt faintly of paint, craft glue, whatever disinfectant was being used to wipe down the sleeping palettes and…plain old fashioned innocent fun.
Colour was splashed in random, creative explosions all over the walls where paintings where proudly displayed. Toys were stacked and arranged neatly in nooks ready to entice little hands. And scattered throughout the room, activity centres were set out waiting to stimulate little minds. Wherever he looked there was something to see and do. It was fantastic.
Brody smiled happily to himself. In truth, he loved coming to collect Wolf from preschool. After a day of playing and creating and being surrounded by kids his own age, Wolf was always so full of life and boundless energy. And usually ready to talk nonstop all the way home—telling Brody at a million miles an hour all about his latest adventures and escapades with his little buddies. If he lived to be a thousand, Brody would never be able to thank Lark—his incredibly connected lover—enough for helping him get Wolf into the programme at the Riversands Community Preschool. It was the best thing Brody had ever been able to do for his brother, who soaked up the experience like a little sponge and was just blossoming under the active programme the centre ran.
Thinking of Lark, the smile slipped a little from Brody’s lips. He felt the muscles tighten in his shoulders slightly before he forced himself to relax. Something was going on with his lover. With both his lovers actually. It was hard to pinpoint exactly, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there had been a change in them lately. He couldn’t help but wonder and worry about what was up with Lark and Zak—the third and more stoic member of their little ménage.
In the last couple of weeks the two had been…elusive. Secretive. Oh! They were still extremely playful and enthusiastic lovers, but something had…just changed. And it was hard not to get nervous about it.
Over the last six months, he had got used to them being almost painfully honest and open with each other. Ever since the initially bumpy start to their relationship—a time when they had all been keeping little secrets from one another—there had been an unspoken agreement to tell each other everything. But lately, that deal seemed to have been, if not broken then certainly bent.
At times he would catch Lark and Zak talking quietly, but whenever they spotted him the conversation would abruptly cease, or they would quickly change the subject. It didn’t seem…sinister exactly. Just secretive.
Brody sighed. Something was definitely going on, he just wasn’t sure what. Which led to his next problem—what was he going to do about it. A secret, insecure little part of himself couldn’t help wondering if Lark and Zak had finally got tired of him and were ready to move on. He wasn’t sure he wanted to actually find out if they had. He felt a bit like when he was a kid and would hide under his bed, hoping the monsters—usually in the shape of his mother's latest boyfriend—wouldn’t find him.
Lark and Zak had been together far longer than Brody had been around. It was hard not to feel uncomfortable at times when little things reminded him every day that Lark and Zak knew each other like two halves of a whole. While the three of them together were still feeling their way forward tentatively and rather blindly in a lot of respects.
Shaking off the depressing, and quite possibly completely paranoid direction his thoughts kept taking, Brody stepped farther into the room. This was hardly the time or the place to be thinking about such things—even if they were starting to play at the back of his mind almost constantly. Instead, Brody concentrated on the here and now.
He could hear the sounds of a story being read aloud. The reader pitched her voice to illustrate the different characters—a cat and a mouse apparently on a grand adventure together. Letting the sound draw him farther into the room, Brody eventually peered over a hip high bookstand forming a sheltered alcove and spotted them—twenty eager little faces listening avidly to the last story of the day before home time. All eyes were glued to the pages of the book turned to face them.
A normally rambunctious group, their focus and dedication to the story was really quite remarkable. But even though he tried not to disturb them, something about his presence must have telegraphed itself to the group. Twenty pairs of eyes turned to focus on him.
“Wolf! Your brother’s here!” one excitable little boy shouted at the top of his lungs.
The call was quickly taken up by two or three other, self-appointed announcers.
“Wolf!”
“Wolf’s brother’s here!”
“Wolf!”
Brody couldn’t hold back his grin. There was something infectious about the exuberant enthusiasm of kids that always got to him.
He watched as Wolf disengaged himself from the group, clambering quickly to his feet.
“Hey, Wolf.” Brody braced himself for Wolf’s usual animated greeting, but instead of the wild call of his name and a flying five year old leaping at him, Brody found his legs suddenly encased in thin, but surprisingly strong arms as Wolf’s head buried in his side. “Hey, what’s up, buddy?” Brody stroked his hand over the soft mop of his brother’s hair, but Wolf just burrowed closer and refused to look up or answer.
Bewildered, Brody looked around the wildly decorated room, searching for some sort of explanation for Wolf’s strange behaviour. He spotted Ms. Gwen—Wolf’s teacher—moving purposefully towards them, her soft, kind face looking a little strained.
“Hi, Brody. Do you have a moment?”
Brody felt the worry that had started to edge its way into his mind kick up another couple of notches. What was going on?
“Of course.”
“Wolf, why don’t you go back and listen to the end of the story with the others while I have a chat with your brother?”
Wolf apparently wasn’t buying it. He shook his head vigorously without looking up and tightened his grip around Brody’s legs.
Brody, not sure what to make of the boy's dramatically out of character reactions, continued to stoke his hand over Wolf’s head. He looked to Ms. Gwen, hoping she might have some answers. This just wasn’t like Wolf at all.
Ms. Gwen smiled, though it looked a little thin. She stepped away from the group of children, most of whom had gone back to listening to the story, but Brody still appreciated the gesture and her hushed tones. Whatever was going on, Wolf didn’t need the other kids hearing the adults talking about him.
“I’m afraid Wolf got himself into a little trouble today. He and another little boy got into a fight. To be fair, I think Wolf was sticking up for one of his friends, but…we really can’t have him pushing and yelling at other children.”
Brody looked down at the top of Wolf’s head as it pressed impossibly closer, as if trying to shut out the damning words.
“We gave him and the other little boy some quiet time and had a little chat about the green and red behaviours this afternoon. Did you see the information we sent home about our behavioural programme?”
Brody nodded. He’d read all the information in the welcome pack he’d received when Wolf first started. He vaguely remembered that they used some sort of colour code system linked with drawings and activities to teach the kids appropriate behaviours and reactions or something. Right now all that Brody could focus on was that Wolf had been involved in a fight. His little brother. He couldn’t imagine the sweet child he knew in his heart being involved in anything like a fight. It just didn’t seem right. And Wolf was clinging to him as if his life depended on it.
Ms. Gwen laid a hand gently on Brody’s forearm, drawing his attention back to her. “Look…honestly, I don’t think it’s anything to fuss about. Boys do this sort of thing all the time. It’s all a part of learning to be in a group. And it really wasn’t all that serious. I just thought I’d mention it in case Wolf says something to you. It was just a minor altercation. Really.”
Brody looked down at his brother still clinging to him. It didn’t look particularly minor to Wolf.
“Do you know what they were fighting about?”
Ms. Gwen looked distinctly uncomfortable. “As I said, I think Wolf was just defending another little boy that got a bit upset with some things that were said today. We’re going to talk to the whole group over the next few days about what we say to each other and how what we say can make our hearts feel. “
Brody could feel a politically correct side step coming up. He liked Ms. Gwen. He liked her a lot actually. She had a very natural way with the kids and quite obviously cared for them—he could see that just by the way she spoke to and about them. But Brody could also see she didn’t want to talk names and name issues specifically. It might even be that she couldn’t. Who knew what sort of policies and procedures existed behind the scenes he had no idea about.
While he knew he could probably work it all out eventually—given time and patience—he figured he’d get a lot more out of Wolf in the long run. And in a much shorter space of time too. He could always come back and talk to Ms. Gwen when he had a few more pieces of the puzzle to go on.
“Thank you, Ms. Gwen. I’ll have a chat to Wolf. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Ms. Gwen nodded, relief smoothing out the small lines of tension that had gradually worked their way into her face. She reached down and stroked Wolf’s hair. “I’ll see you in the morning, Wolf. Don’t worry about today, honey. All done. We’ll start again and have a better day tomorrow. What do you say?”
Wolf nodded against Brody’s leg. Ms. Gwen smiled kindly, no doubt imagining that after a good night sleep all would be forgotten. But Brody wasn’t so sure. Wolf had an amazing memory, and a very highly developed sense of justice for a five year old. Whoever had crossed Wolf and made him this upset wasn’t likely to be forgiven overnight.
Taking Wolf’s hand, Brody walked them silently out and started the short walk home to the apartment above Sandpiper’s Restaurant. Only once they were clear of the building and the car park with its confusing bustle and chaos of parents picking up their small charges, did Brody carefully squeeze Wolf’s hand to get his attention.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
There was a small pause before Wolf finally broke his silence. “Justin was being mean to Ryan.”
Ryan. No wonder Wolf leapt into the fray—Ryan was Wolf’s best friend. Over the past few months the pair had become virtually inseparable. In fact, Ryan had become somewhat of a fixture in their lives—with regular play days and his name constantly coming up in conversations with Wolf.
“Why? What was Justin doing to Ryan?” Brody asked, keeping his voice even and neutral, hoping Wolf would open up.
“We were making heart cards for Vallenstens day.” Brody smiled as Wolf mangled the word into submission. “He made fun of Ryan when he gave his heart card to me. He made Ryan cry. He was being so mean!”
The smile faded from Brody’s face.
Oh, crap!
“What did Ms. Gwen say?”
“She made me promise not to push Justin over again. But he’s not allowed to make Ryan cry.”
“No, he shouldn’t be allowed to make Ryan cry,” Brody agreed carefully as all his protective instincts rose to the fore—demanding he rush in and fight the good fight for Wolf, even while his brain pointed out he couldn’t just jump in and make it all better.
“He’s just a…a great big…” Brody could see Wolf’s anger and frustration bubbling furiously beneath the surface, desperate to escape. He braced himself for the fallout. “…a great big doo doo brain!”
Okaaay…not the best, but it could have been a whole lot worse. Trouble was, Brody still wasn’t sure what the right thing to say was. He didn’t want Wolf getting into fights, but a little piece of his heart was angry on Wolf and Ryan’s behalf.
“Did Ms. Gwen say anything to Justin?” he asked carefully.
“She made him say sorry to Ryan for making fun of his card.”
Well, at least that was one thing. Brody really wasn’t sure what, if anything he should say next though. Brewing just below the surface was a whole mess of trouble he wasn’t sure either of them were ready to talk about. Wolf was only five for crying out loud. Brody breathed in and out slowly, using the time to think before he leapt too far ahead into a conversation he wasn’t sure either of them was anywhere near ready to have.