Rheostat

30.Crayons

D I E G O

Today was the happiest day of my life.

Mom and Dad said they were going to bring us a little sister. I was tired of having only little brothers. They were annoying and never followed what I ordered, completely ignoring the hierchy.

"Big bro," Noah clung to my leg, raising his hands for me to pick him up. He can't even talk properly and had already started pestering me. Shouldn't a baby's first words be 'Mom' or 'Dad'?

I had asked Ezra and Kai to call me Big brother. But those two brats didn't listen. Instead an annoying toddler would follow me around all day calling me big bro. At least, he was cute so I was going to forgive him for annoying me all the time.

I picked Noah up and placed him in my lap. Maybe he misses Mom. We are going to go meet her now. "Are you excited to meet your new sister?" I asked him. I don't think he understood because his only response was to touch my cheeks. Why were kids so dumb?

"Can I not go?" Kai huffed at Stephen. That's all he can do, really. He was the most annoying among my brothers. I had offered him to become my disciple. The kid had potential to become my successor. Not surprisingly, he only stared at me in response. His loss.

"No, Kai. Don't you want to meet Mama?" Stephen asked, kneeling down to his level so he could fix Kai's crooked bowtie. I am surprised he managed to convince him to come down in the first place.

"Look! I brought her a gift!" Ezra came running down the stairs. "Do you think she will like it?" He asked showing us the thing he had hidden in his fist.

"She's a human baby, Ezra. Not a goat." I laughed when I saw he had brought a handful of grass from the back garden.

"Don't girls like flowers?" He asked, confused. On closer inspection, they were indeed not grass but wild flowers.

"I'm sure she will love it, Ezra." Stephen assured kindly. "Now, lets go."

It took us ten more minutes to get inside the car because Kai was refusing to move from his place.

But we finally reached the hospital and Uncle Sean took us to where our baby sister was. There was a glass surrounding the baby as she slept.

Noah was jumping to get a better view so I picked him up so he could also see her. "Cute!" Noah placed his hands against the glass in an attempt to touch her.

"She's so cute." Ezra echoed. Kai was just standing there not understanding why we were so excited. Did he not feel anything at all?

"I want to see Mom." Kai tugged on my sleeves.

"Okay. Lets go see her." I looked around but saw Stephen was missing. Wasn't he here just now?

Uncle Sean took us in front of the room mom was. I saw Stephen sitting in one of the chairs outside the room. He had his head buried between his hands.

"Stephen, why didn't you come see Eveline with us." Mom and Dad had decided on naming her Eveline after months of fighting over hundreds of names.

As soon as Stephen raised his head, I knew something was wrong. His face held panic as he mumbled with difficulty, "Something... something is wrong with Mama."

"What do you mean, Stephen?" Uncle Sean narrowed his eyes. He was Mom's only brother. Our grandparents were already dead so Mom was his only family left.

"Uh-the doctor said she's having twins. And that, uh, that they didn't know before. And now it's hard. And something about Mama in danger. I don't know." Stephen clutched his head tightly.