Smiley and Sunshine

53.

Some days she is a warrior.
Some days she's a broken mess.
Most days, she's a bit of both.
But every day she's there.
Standing. Fighting. Trying.

~~

"The itsy bitsy spider crawled up the water spout," Hayes sung to herself, trailing her fingers up and up along the faded green wall in the kitchen until she couldn't stretch on her tippy toes no more. She had the cutest lisp, as just four days ago, she lost her very first tooth.

Mommy accidentally popped her in the mouth too hard, loosening a bottom incisor. Once the pain and shock resided, Hayes became obsessed with wiggling the tooth with her tongue, wanting to be just like Glen and his toothless smile, and then the tooth just suddenly fell out.

And she didn't even cry.

Glen, wise beyond his years at the prime age of 7, was able to convince Hayes that the tooth fairy was on vacation and would be back to work the next, next, next day, buying enough time for himself to borrow money from mommy without mommy finding out.

Risky business, but he had finally done it that morning, as mommy was always gone all day on Saturday and grandpa didn't care what the babies did as long as they didn't bother him. But grandpa had gone out as well, taking him out of the equation.

The first time Hayes and Glen were left home alone all by themselves it was really scary with lots of creepy sounds and stormy weather, but it didn't take them long to realize it was their favorite thing ever. Except when they were hungry, like now and there wasn't food for them to eat.

They were only babies, they didn't know how to cook.

"Down came the rain, and washed the spider out," Hayes twirled her fingers together in disorganized entanglement then flung her hands to her sides. She giggled and began jumping and landing on both feet, traveling from one tile flooring to the next with a giant stomp. "Rain, rain, go away."

"Silly HayHay. That is not the song," Glen reminded her. Ever since Hayes learned the nursery song from Margot, her new friend at school, she had been singing it on repeat so she would never ever forget it. Glen only had to correct her a couple lot of times.

"Silly GiGi," Hayes copied him as she excitedly jumped across the small kitchen space all the way over to Glen who was digging through the fridge looking for anything for them to nibble on.

So far, he had found a half-full bag of the yucky green grapes. Not only were they too sour for his taste but they were also really squishy.

Glen reluctantly pulled the bag out of the fridge and held it in his hands, a despondent look on his face. His sister was more picky then he was, but maybe because she was super duper hungry, she would eat the grapes.

Cross his fingers and his toes.

"Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain," Hayes got back on track and made the final leap, not paying attention to how close she would land by Glen. He stepped down off the little riser in the fridge, right onto her little toes.

"Ouchie!" Hayes cried with the initial sting as Glen crashed into her, making her fall down onto her bony butt. Any chubbiness she may have had previously, was long gone with the new living arrangement.