Little Miss Maisy

Chapter eight: Final words

Rewritten | Nine

Maisy's tea party was interrupted by her noisy brothers talking in the hallway, oblivious to the fact that she could hear them.

Beau and Miles were discussing topics that Maisy didn't quite understand. Especially since they never mentioned a name. Only used pronouns.

"The lawyer called, something about a video that she left for us."

Not only have they been super grumpy over these past few days, but they had also been shuffling a lot of grownup papers and a strange man in a suit had frequently been around.

Eric told her to ignore all of it but didn't explain either. Sometimes he'll play with her while the siblings are busy.

"She left us a video?"

"Apparently. He says we should watch it."

Maisy frowned at Beau's words. Because she's so little, she was assuming he was talking about a movie.

"For personal reasons."

Their grumpy behavior made Maisy uneasy. Over the past month, she's become very dependent on them. Adjusted to this new lifestyle.

More than just adjusted, to the point she has separation anxiety from them.

A pit grew in her stomach as she listened to their gruff voices, Maisy clutched Teddy close to her chest. This was too much for her little heart to take.

"I don't think we can bring Maisy. Where is she, anyway?"

Uh-oh.

Without much reasoning, the little one scurried to her closet. Crawling to the very back, holding Teddy close and silently reassuring him.

"Maisy?" Beau called as he came into the room, his voice weathered with exhaustion. "Mais?"

"Miles?" He called instead, bringing one of her other brothers in here. That wasn't good.

From the carpet, Maisy could see their feet to their knees. They still hadn't spotted her slightly covered by the half-open door.

"Yeah?"

"Wasn't Maisy playing in here?"

". . . Yeah?"

". . . Shit."

Although she was scared, Maisy still couldn't help but silently correct Beauy's use of a bad word. Don't worry, she made a mental note to tell him later. She's too overwhelmed to deal with him right now.

"Maisy, quit playing around. Where are you?" Miles ducked beneath her bed, searching the corners while Beau checked near her toys.

But, it didn't take too long for Miles to kneel down in front of her closet. "Maisy."

He waited to finish until she looked up at him. Even though Teddy was snuggled so close to her face it blocked his view. "What're you doing in here?"

He laid down on the floor to inch a little closer, stroking her cheek as he watched her slowly shrug. Maisy really hoped if she was silent, he wouldn't realize she had been crying.

"Nothin.'"

Beau said they shouldn't bring her, but now she wants to go. She doesn't want them to leave her behind. Even if she doesn't know where they're going.

"Alright," Miles moved on, deciding to give her a quick game plan of what was going to happen this afternoon. "We're all going to go see the lawyer, but when we're finished we can do something together—"