✏️📚 The Big Little Bus

Day 1, 15:28. Answers

There were other kids playing on the floor again, and some of the dolls were having a tea party. That looked like a lot of fun, and as soon as I noticed I started wriggling in Daddy's hands, trying to run over and join them.

"Hey, hey," he scolded me gently with a wagging finger. "Careful, I could still drop you if you move around too much." He lowered me to the ground and I gave him a little nod, and hugged his legs real quick, before I ran off to join some new friends.

The dolls were having a big party. The game board from before was a map of a party now, and the roads and bridges were obviously party decorations. It was a birthday party, Sam said, but they didn't know whose birthday it was yet. I told him he should talk to Edmund, because the bear might be a famous detective, and he could probably work out whose birthday it was.

That was the start of a whole new game, as Edmund went to all the other animals and dolls to ask them how old they were, and it it was their birthday. Sometimes he asked their star sign, to check if they were telling the truth, but that didn't help much because a lot of dolls don't know what order the stars come in. Edmund was being a proper detective, even if he had a different name depending who was holding him.

I don't know how long the detecting took. Once we got started we just kept on asking questions. Asking the dolls, and sometimes the other kids. Nobody seemed to know whose birthday it was, but they were still all enjoying the party. Maybe we got a bit carried away, because one of the grownups came to tell somebody off for laughing super loud, telling her to stop being a banshee. I was sure I knew what that word meant, but I didn't feel like remembering it right now, so I just imagined it was a kid with a really, really, really high voice that wouldn't stop yelling.

The party eventually quieted down, but there were at least a few people still playing detective. The rest of us sat against cushions along the side of the bus, hugging the softest animals we could find and just chatting. All the toys asking questions had got us interested in knowing more, and I think Jace wasn't the only one asking questions of his own now. Maybe we got a bit carried away, but I don't know if that made me feel less little or more. I know it made it easier to trust these people, though.

Jace's first question was if this was the first time I'd met other littles. He said it was his third time going to a meeting, but he'd never been to Academia before. I told him that I'd never even imagined it was possible until Daddy said he'd pay; and everybody waved and shouted thanks to Daddy. I wanted to hug him right then, because I knew it really was an amazing thing, to take me on this holiday.

I told them a bit about my town, and my family as well. About all the people who'd never understand how good this felt. He had his own stories, that were almost the same, and a load of my other friends told theirs too. But it was never sad, because everybody knew that we were here now, and we had a new family, the people we'd chosen to surround ourselves with. I promised Jace we'd stay in touch, and maybe we could play again if we were ever in the same area. He'd got on the bus a couple of hours after me, but we knew we could travel.

Somebody asked how I'd found out about the Big Little Busses, and I told them about the forums I'd found online, and all the wonderful people I'd chatted with. Maybe those were things that a little girl shouldn't know about, but I found that I still stumbled every time I came to a big word, and that it was easier to talk simpler instead of trying to remember the big words. It was all so easy, and I found out that I could stay all happy and giggly even when I was talking about my meanie family, if I kept using little babyish words.

"Are you using hypnosis?" Jace had another question. I nodded without thinking, and only realised a second later that I didn't know what that word meant. My face must have been priceless, because everybody laughed. They were laughing with me, not at me. One kid after another told me how much fun it was, and how they liked not being able to remember big words, or something like that. I understood that they were talking about something Daddy had given me to help me feel little, and that was all I needed to know. I knew what it meant, and I knew it was a good thing, I just didn't need to remember the details or try to understand any of the big words. It wasn't something that everyone did, but I think more than half the littles here said they'd tried it once.