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Rainbow Day
“It’s Rainbow Day!” Ariel soon-to-be Earp-Haught sits on her CoCo’s lap at the kitchen table as she munches on her Cheerios.
“You’re right, Princess. First school, then parade.” Nicole lifts the spoon to Ariel’s mouth and is impressed as the little girl grabs it with her hand, and shoves it in her mouth. She buries her nose in Ariel’s red pigtails and sighs. Their girl is going through a phase where she needs to be as physically close to either of them as possible.
“CoCo keeps Rainbow Day safe.” Ariel peeks up at her CoCo to make sure she’s heard her.
Waverly mills around the kitchen, Ariel’s new Fancy Nancy backpack in hand. She reaches for the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich inside of the fridge and packs it into the matching J’aime Paris lunchbox alongside apple slices and Fruit Punch.
“Why does CoCo keep Rainbow Day safe, Ariel?” She smirks and commands Bolt to heel after placing a kiss on both Nicole and Ariel’s lips.
“Community Helper!” Ariel spits a mouthful of cereal into the bowl and squeezes her hands together. “Stop! Open! It’s the POLICE!”
Nicole and Waverly burst out laughing, and suddenly, Waverly knows the exact culprit of their daughter’s antics.
“Were you watching Cops last night while I was visiting Stevie? I think you’d ought to take the day off, Sheriff. It looks like Ariel knows what she’s doing.” Waverly wraps an arm around Nicole and tucks a lock of ginger hair behind her ear.
“No p e.” Nicole’s face goes red as she pops the “p.” We actually just watched Zootopia. Judy Hopps is quite convincing.”
“Ma’s a Community Helper because she’s a stop, open, it’s the police. Stop, open, it’s the police. Stop-open.” Ariel slumps onto Nicole’s lap and closes her eyes, but doesn’t stop talking. Nicole feels her baby’s weight atop her knees. Her legs ache, but she knows that one day, Ariel won’t want to snuggle with her anymore.
They don’t try to stop her from stimming at home. They don’t know if its right, or if they should prevent her from repeating herself. All Nicole and Waverly want is for their girl to be herself and happy, and if repetition is part of the package, so what?
Pride is about unapologetically being yourself. Pride is also about the family they’ve created, and the special little girl they’ve welcomed into their hearts.
Ariel looks down at Bolt and gives Waverly the side-eye. “He not coming with me!” It’s the same argument each morning. Ariel would rather use her walker than lean on Bolt for assistance. (Actually, she’d rather be carried by her Ma.)
“Bolt wants to help us read to your classmates, too, sweetheart. He told me.” Nicole hates the facade they’ve put up for the past week. Ariel (literally) thinks that Nicole and Waverly can read Bolt’s thoughts. Because their girl takes everything that comes out of her mothers’ mouth as gospel, a simple fib has turned into a full-scale lie.
With Kindergarten winding down, and Ariel’s sixth birthday early in the summer, the parents have been invited into the classroom to read a story and bring cupcakes to celebrate the summer birthdays.
“After reading I go home with Mama and Ma.” Begrudgingly, she hops off of Nicole’s lap and grabs onto Bolt’s triangular-shaped harness. The dog perks up and starts to walk his tiny master to the door.
Getting Ariel to go to school is rough, but getting her to stay in school is tougher. These past few weeks, Ariel has faked them out with headaches, stomachaches, and nausea. They’re suckers, and they know it.
“Why do you want to come home early?” Nicole tilts her head to the side and puts her arm around Waverly who tenses at her touch.
“I want to see Stevie before the parade,” Ariel says, clear as day. Every day, for the past two weeks since her birth someone has been with Stevie Earp-Holliday as she grows in the NICU from the start of visiting hours, into the late hours of the night.
Waverly leans into Nicole’s touch and strokes their daughter’s cheek. “Can we make a deal?”
“A deal?” Ariel hops from foot to foot eyes glancing up at her foster mothers. “I go home after reading.” She crosses her arms over her chest and steps backward.
“I know you have free play for the last thirty minutes. Ma and I can pick you up before free play, or you can stay and play with Alice and we can visit Stevie after.” Waverly hopes that her proposition will work, as she looks at their little girl, cute as can be in her blue dress with rainbows all over. (Waverly knows that she has an obsession with Etsy, and doesn’t think she can stop.)
Nicole has a flash-of-genius idea and pulls out Ariel’s PECS communication binder from her backpack. The binder is chock-full of little velcro cards with almost anything Ariel would ever want to talk about inside of it. On the front of the binder, there is a velcro strip where the cards get attached. She pulls out a card that represents school, a newly placed card with Stevie’s face on it, and a card with the picture of the three of them.
“See, Ariel. First school, next Stevie, then parade.” Nicole points to the pictures as she speaks, and watches as Ariel’s eyes follow her finger.
Ariel seems convinced enough as she steps onto the porch and calls for Alice, who is busy playing with Gertie the Goat in the barn. Nicole slips the binder back in Doc emerges from the barn, Alice on his shoulders.
“Hey!” Waverly exclaims and pokes Doc in the shoulder once he reaches the porch. “Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready to fire up the grill at Shorty’s?”
“I suspect we’ll be serving up a lot of hamburgers for this afternoon’s festivities. Shorty’s is-”
Alice covers up her father’s mouth and mustache with her hands and giggles. “Shorty’s is the number one tourist destination in all of Purgatory.” She imitates Doc’s southern drawl and giggles, leaving him with a messed up mustache.
“Wynonna would be proud of you for that sass, Al. We’ll have to tell her.” Nicole smirks and takes a deep breath.
“Don’t tell My Nonna! I don’t want to get Daddy in trouble. Last time he was in trouble, he had to sleep on the couch and he was all alone so I went to snuggle with him.” Alice frowns and hugs Doc’s neck.
“It’s quite alright, sweetheart. My Nonna won’t be upset.” Doc hoists Alice onto his hip and starts to tickle his little girl.
“Waverly, what can I make you later for the barbecue? Wynonna said she’d stay late at the hospital so that I could run the restaurant, but I might close up early and go see her and the baby.”
Waverly shrugs and squeezes Doc’s hand. “Thank you for doing this, Doc. It means a lot to us. We weren’t going to stay too late either… I don’t want Wynonna to have to be alone at the hospital for too long. We were going to head over there around 11, and try to convince her to join us at the parade.”
“Seriously, Doc. Don’t worry about us. I’ve got all my officers on patrol, the streets will be safe. I just want everyone to have a good time, including this one, at her very first pride.” Nicole smooths down Ariel’s pigtails that have curled at the edges from the heat.
Doc tips his hat at his might-as-well-be sister-in-law. “Waverly… this is your day… please. What can I make you?”
“If you insist…one veggie burger for me, please. And one Alice. I have to take her to Kindergarten. We’re going to be late.”
“If we’re late one more time, Mrs. Lovejoy won’t let us pick from the prize box on Friday.” Alice rolls her eyes because everything has been absolutely crazy since her little sister was born. She wishes she could play with Stevie, but she’s too tiny to do anything except cry.
Waverly wishes she could stick a certain finger in Mrs. Lovejoy’s face. She and Nicole have tried to have numerous conversations with the teacher about accommodations that should be made on Ariel’s behalf, and have gotten nowhere. The other night, after three episodes of Gentleman Jack, Waverly had paused the television much to Nicole’s chagrin.
“Do you think she’s ready for grade one?” Waverly had asked, pulling herself closer to Nicole.
“She only has four months of Kindergarten under her belt, Waves. She failed the reading assessment last month. I honestly don’t know, but I do know that she’d be distraught to leave Alice’s class.”
“I know, I know,” Waverly says, as Nicole strokes her arms, knees pulled up to her chin. This is her safe place. “But maybe repeating Kindergarten… not even repeating…. Maybe starting Kindergarten from the start is what she needs. She won’t be six until-”
“Would holding her back from her peers be good though? I don’t know what to think… I guess we need to try to set up a meeting with Lovejoy.”
“What a bitch. I can’t decide who I dislike more, Lovejoy or Bunny Loblaw.” And with that, Waverly presses play on Anne and Ann, and snuggles softly into Nicole’s lap.
They make it to Kindergarten as the bell rings, and Mrs. Lovejoy gives a fake, snide, smile. After Morning Meeting, she invites Waverly and Nicole up to the front of the class to read.
Nicole whispers in her daughter’s ear. “Tell everyone what book you picked, Ariel.” Ariel crosses her arms and makes a face. “No thank you, CoCo,” she whispers back, cupping her hands over Nicole’s ear.
Storytime goes as well as expected, and Ariel is eager to help Nicole flip the pages of The Pout Pout Fish . However, she doesn’t show much interest in the story, not even when Waverly sings the fish’s silly song. Instead, she clings to her CoCo and Wavy, one hand in each of theirs.
Then she does the thing that makes them feel like the worst mothers in the world.
“ Please no leave,” she says, tugging on their hands. “Stay for math centers.”
And that’s how Waverly Earp winds up with a red and blue Macaroni string necklace around her neck. Ariel explains that it’s an ABAB pattern, which goes,
“Red, blue, red, blue. Now I’ll make one for Ma. I made one for you because you wear fancy jewelry like a Princess, Wavy.” Ariel strings the colorful macaroni pieces together, throwing in a few pony beads for good measure.
Nicole laughs, fastening the necklace around her neck.“Mama is kind of like a Princess. She’s my Princess.”
“Yeah and you’re like the police-knight that saved her from the tower,” Ariel says, leaning down to pet Bolt.
“Oooh, I’m a knight. That’s cool, Ariel.” Nicole reaches for a crayon and begins to draw the outline of a heart on a sheet of colored paper.
Ariel puts her hands on Nicole’s shoulder and takes the crayon from her Ma’s hand. “Wavy’s not just a sit-down Princess though, Ma. You have to let her kick-ass, too.”
“Kick butt , sweetheart. I’ll make sure I kick butt, too.” Waverly giggles, and rubs Ariel’s back. She’s happy the stern teacher didn’t hear that one. Normally, she’d think their little girl spent too much time around Wynonna or Alice, but she’s extremely excited that Ariel is coming out of her shell.
“Can I pet him, Ariel?” A little boy named Oliver who Waverly recognizes from their trip to the farm sits next to Ariel, stringing buttons onto a pipe cleaner.
Ariel stares at the buttons. Oliver doesn’t appear to be making any type of pattern. “No thank you, he’s working,” she answers. She’ll have to show him how to make a pattern later. In the meantime, she moves a yellow button next to a pink button. Maybe he’ll get the hint.
“Rainbows are a pattern too, Oliver.” Ariel shrugs and lines up the crayons on the table from red to violet. She’s got work to do before the parade.
For the first time in her daughter’s fourteen days of life, she’s completely alone with her. The thought terrifies her more than seventy-seven revenants hell-bent on killing the heir do. She defeated the curse so Alice didn’t have to become the heir. She defeated the curse so Alice didn’t have to become the heir, but the baby laying on her chest is scary.
Stevie isn’t scary, but the tubes, wires, and oxygen tank that are attached to her terrify Wynonna. The baby coos and opens her almond-shaped eyes. They’re blue like her father’s. She’s still bald, and her skin feels paper-thin, blue veins popping out. She’s beautiful.
Stevie tilts her head atop Wynonna’s chest. It’s almost as if she can sense that they have company inside of the hospital gray. Doc peers in, and takes his hat off, out of respect for his child and her mother.
“Is she sleeping?” Wynonna cracks a smile at how awfully silly he looks in the mandatory bright yellow scrubs and gloves that visitors are required to wear.
“She’s doing the tongue thing where I think she’s hungry but she’s just fighting to stay awake.” Wynonna reaches for his hand, and he sits beside his girls on the edge of the bed. He was never scared of Clootie or demons or the Clanton-McLaury gang, but he’s terrified of his little girl’s future. Until Ariel had come into his life, Doc Holliday had never once thought about what it would be like to live with a disability. Back in his days as a gunslinger, he’d mocked anyone who looked or talked different from him or Wyatt. He regrets it now. He wonders if Stevie having Down Syndrome is somehow God’s punishment for his deeds.
Everyone has walked on eggshells for days about Stevie and what a special gift and miracle she is, and how its all going to be okay. But, he thinks, as he stares at Wynonna, how do they know that everything’s going to be okay?
What’s going to happen to Stevie when she grows up? Will she be able to hold a job? Will she be happy? And… what about Ariel? When the Earps and Haughts and Hollidays are gone, who will take care of their girls?
The NICU door opens once again, and Alice carefully tiptoes forward to peek at her sister without disturbing her.
“My Nonna…Daddy… ” Alice whispers, walking toward her mother, father, and baby sister. Her cousin walks behind her slowly, holding something in her hands.
The hospital door slams shut, and Wynonna wonders where her sister is.
“Where are your Aunts?” Wynonna places a protective hand over Stevie’s head and reaches out toward her daughter.
Alice shrugs. “We ran away. They were being too slow in the hallway.”
“Two nurses yelled at us,” Ariel says, as a mischievous grin forms on her face. Wynonna laughs because even squeaky-clean Haught’s kid managed to get in trouble. She rocks back and forth in the chair.
Unlike Bolt, (who she is still getting used to) Ariel is enamored by Stevie, with her ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes. She knows that Stevie likes her too, because she sticks out her tongue and laughs.
Ariel thinks that it’s the baby’s way of saying hello, I’m Stevie.
“She tired?” She peers at her cousin, and wants to touch the tubes that come out of her nose.
Wynonna strokes Ariel’s curls with one hand, as her sister and Haught come into the room, holding hands. It’s adorable and gross at the same time. “She had a nice long nap. It’s almost time to put her back in her isolette. Then, I guess we’re off to the parade.”
Nicole and Waverly surround the rocking chair, whispering hellos to their niece. Waverly begins to prepare the isolette, taking the blue giraffe cover off the top. She stares at the family photo that adorns the inside. Waverly swears, with her entire heart that Stevie will come home.
With the nurse’s help, Wynonna first presses a kiss to Stevie’s head, and transfers the baby back into her isolette. She hates to leave the baby, but knows she’ll be back in the evening.
Ariel tugs on Waverly’s sleeve, and her Mama lifts her to the isolette opening. She spreads the heart in her palms, and presents it to her cousin. “I color a rainbow heart because I love you so much.”
“Oh, Ariel. Thank you, sweetheart. I know Stevie loves it.”
“Stevie loves My Nonna’s you knows, but she can’t drink from them yet because she’s too little.”
Wynonna clears her throat and tries not to laugh. “She likes to lay on my chest because it’s good for her to have skin to skin contact.” Leave it to Alice to help her feel better when she feels like crap. “When she gets a little bigger she can drink my milk.” Alice whispers into her mother’s ear.
“Just like I did?” She’s whispering because she doesn’t want Stevie to feel bad that she can’t nurse yet.
“Yes,” Wynonna says, lying through her teeth.
One day, Alice is going to have to learn the horrible truth of what Wynonna believes was her neglect.
The Pride parade (or Rainbow Day) is a hit. After they come home from the hospital, Nicole and Waverly change into their matching rainbow tank tops, and Nicole even dons a rainbow bandana. Waverly puts a rainbow bowtie around Bolt’s neck, and two rainbow bows around Ariel’s pigtails. As she holds onto Bolt’s harness with one hand, and her Wavy with the other, Ariel watches as the plethora of rainbow people go by. Her headphones keep the noise at bay as she sees men and men and women and women holding hands. Some of the families are much like her own. Some of the families look different than hers.
So many people stop them on the street to talk to her Mama and Ma that she gets antsy and starts to sing to herself. She wants to see Alice and tell her about all of the people and kids that are dressed up. (Alice is busy serving hamburgers and hot dogs with Uncle Doc and Aunt Wynonna. Anyone in rainbow gets half off their order.)
At some point, Wavy puts matching rainbow temporary tattoos on their faces which Ariel can’t stop touching. Later, when she’s oh so tired of walking, Waverly carries Ariel through the streets of Purgatory on her back. It’s something new, because CoCo always carries her, but Ariel likes that Waverly wants to carry her too, although she can only do it for a minute before she runs out of breath.
As they turn the corner, her CoCo sighs and her Wavy nearly stops in her tracks.
“Ignore them,” Nicole says, rubbing Waverly’s arm, and squeezing her hand. She hoists Ariel on her hip, and murmurs. “They’re butt holes.”
Ariel looks suspiciously from CoCo to Wavy, from Ma to Mama. They’re trying to hide something from her. She peers from out of CoCo’s chest and sees a bunch of people with large signs on the sidewalk. They’re chanting words she doesn’t know the meaning of, and Ariel watches as the parade-goers faces turn from joy to solemnity.
“Wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, baby. There are just some people here that we’re not going to stop and say hello to.” Waverly brushes Ariel’s curls away from her face.
“I say hello to everyone . Social skills. Twelve to twelve-thirty. Language group. Twelve thirty to one. Lunch. One to one-thirty.” Ariel whispers the rest of her school schedule into Waverly’s ear as they walk past the protestors. Bolt starts to bark in distress, and his harness is loosened from Ariel’s grip.
Immediately, the little girl detaches herself from Nicole and stumbles forward to find her dog, who has found himself among the bad people. Ariel falls to the ground, and Bolt rushes to her side. Her hands are on her ears. It’s too loud. Everything spins. Everything changes. Everyone screams. Or maybe it’s just her. Suddenly, the protestors stop chanting and Nicole and Waverly dash toward their sweaty, scraped up little girl, who is okay.
Bolt heels, and licks Ariel’s face. Her rainbow dress has a rip in it. CoCo and Wavy don’t get mad over that kind of stuff, but these people in front of her might.
The protestors are silent. Nicole recognizes one as Bunny Loblaw as she and Waverly take Ariel into their arms. They rock her as they check for injuries. She was spooked but okay. She didn’t hit her head.
Ariel gets up, and motions for her Ma and Mama to stand up too. It’s too hot for hugs. Bolt is obedient and lets her take his harness.
“Come on Mama. Come on Ma. We need to go find Alice. I want another burger.”
(And they do go find Alice and the rest of their family. But first, she’s attacked with cuddles and kisses.)
So, despite the unwelcome guests on the sidelines, and the dirty looks as they make their way up the Purgatory streets toward Shorty’s, Nicole, Waverly, and Ariel do what they always do. They march to the beat of their own drum. They celebrate.
They love.
And if anyone has a problem with that, Ariel thinks, they can talk to Aunt Wynonna.
Ariel wipes her cheeks of the kisses and furrows her brow at her mothers.
"You must really like me."
"Kid..." Nicole begins,
They walk hand-in-hand, Ariel in the middle.
"You've got no idea," Waverly finishes, squeezing her hand.