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“You can’t be the dragon and a witch. That’s too many things.”
“They’re not a dragon and witch, they’re a dragonwitch .”
“Same thing.”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
“Is not .”
“Is too .”
“Mr Thomas!”
Thomas sighed and turned his attention to the Royél twins.
Roman and Remus Royél were the most chaotically creative children that he’d met yet. Unfortunately, they bickered nearly twice as much as any other siblings he’d ever met. Roman was a dreamer, a star born for the spotlight, he loved making things that he could show off for praise from his peers. Remus was a visionary, an artist like no other, he loved to use everything and anything to make things that were unique rather than applauded.
Both twins were creative, but they had different forms of creativity. This meant that their parallel personas often clashed. At least this time they hadn’t physically clashed. Not yet anyway…
“Yes, Roman?”
“Remus says that our antagonist can’t be a dragonwitch.”
“Why?”
“Because- wait, yeah, why?” Roman asked Remus.
“Because you can’t be a dragon and a witch. Those are two separate things,” Remus explained with a duh tone.
“But the whole point is we’re combining them. Like pizza and ice cream,” Roman paused and frowned. “Wait, that sounds weird.”
Remus grinned. “I like the sound of it.”
“It does sound interesting. But what toppings? And what flavours?”
“Anchovies.”
“Yuck! I hate anchovies. Hold on, you hate them too.”
“Yeah, but you make a funny yuck face.”
Roman rolled his eyes. “Anyway, we went off-topic. A dragon has fire, and a witch has magic. Imagine how skilful a knight would need to be to defeat a dragonwitch .”
“Oh… Ooh, yes! Let’s defeat the dragonwitch!”
“Yeah!”
Thomas smiled as a watched the pair runoff on their imaginary quest. Perhaps being a peacemaker could be tyring, but it was still entertaining at times. Really, where else could he watch kids figure out how to understand each other and communicate their ideas.
He was pondering this when a light tug on his pants interrupted his thoughts. He looked down to find that the tugger was Logan Beri, one of his quieter charges. He had such a serious expression on his face that Thomas felt almost like he was looking at a small adult.
“Yes, Logan?”
“Janus is stealing my chess pieces.”
Thomas looked over to the other little boy who was sitting in his little black dress by the blue kiddie table. Janus Garter was not exactly a troublemaker per se, but if he got bored enough then he loved messing around with Logan. Thomas walked over to confront him, mentally praying that it wouldn’t take forever to get him to give up the chess pieces like last time.
“Janus, did you take Logan’s chess pieces?”
“No sir,” the boy replied with an innocent smile.
“Then what happened to them?”
“I don’t know. Maybe someone cast a spell on them, and they came to life.”
Logan scoffed. “Seeing as magic isn’t real, I highly doubt that.”
“If magic isn’t real, then where are your chess pieces?”
“Wherever you hid them.”
“Why I would never! How could you think such a thing of me, Logan?”
Logan glared daggers at him, and Thomas sighed. “Janus, I know you’re lying. If you admit to it, then I won’t tell your grandfather.”
Janus pouted. “No fair.”
“On the contrary, I think Mr Sanders is being more than fair.”
“Suck up.”
“Thief.”
“Boys .”
Janus took out the two knights and four pawns he’d been hiding under his leg and begrudgingly handed them over to Logan. The other young boy took them and returned to playing against himself. Thomas nodded in satisfaction and then went off to prepare the midday snack. In the kitchen, he found Patton Picani, another one of his charges, staring at the top of the fridge and talking to it?
“You know, I think we’d be great friends.”
“Pat? Who are you talking to?”
“I don’t know their name yet.”
“Oh,” Thomas looked over to the fridge and did a double-take when he realised there was a child lying on top of it.
It was Virgil Flores, the new kid/his neighbour. Virgil and his brother had moved in next door a week ago, and honestly, he hadn’t heard the boy talk since they’d met. He was a rather shy child, according to Nico, so it wasn’t surprising that he wasn’t talking back to Patton just yet. But when Nico had said he was a lot like a cat, then Thomas had never imagined this .
“How on earth did you even get up there?”
Virgil just blinked owlishly at him.
“Can I help you down?”
Virgil thought a moment, then nodded and moved into a better position to be picked up. Thomas carefully got him down from the fridge onto solid ground.
“Alright. I don’t think it’s safe for you to do that, so please don’t climb up there anymore?”
Virgil nodded.
“Can we play now?” Patton asked Virgil.
He looked hesitant and glanced over to Thomas as if asking if it was safe. Nico had said that he didn’t like playing with others he didn’t know. Thomas needed to think of something they could do to get to know one another. Something that wouldn’t involve much talking, if possible. Nico had mentioned Virgil liked helping with tasks…
“Or you two could help me with the afternoon snack?”
Virgil perked up at the offer and Patton clapped his hands excitedly. “Yay! We get to be chefs!”
After cooking with Virgil and Patton, Thomas went out to call all the kids over for snack time, and the twins requested that they could put on a show for everyone. Thomas let them and watched along with the children as Roman and Remus did a dramatic play about how they defeated the dragonwitch, who was played by Janus. Thomas was glad to see that he had found a pastime outside of tormenting poor Logan. He was also pleasantly surprised when Logan appeared in the play as the king whose kingdom the dragonwitch had been tormenting. It was kind of poetic, in a way.
By the end of the show, all the kids had gotten in on the fun as knights and warriors and dragonwitches. Even silent Virgil got a part as one of the best assassins in the kingdom with Patton as his best friend. Patton did seem to want to fight so he just said he would be Virgil’s best friend and Virgil protected him from the kids who had chosen to be antagonists. He was a brilliant little protector.
As Thomas sat there, watching the children play together in this fantasy setting they’d all built, he smiled to himself. There was nothing like seeing the spark of imagination in a child. It was so wonderful how fearlessly they faced the world with their games of make-believe. He felt proud to observe this moment in their lives. The playtime that they would look back on with fondness as they grew up into smart, talented young adults. They were all so different but that couldn’t matter any less here in their little world. The world of pretend that was still untainted by reality. It was beautiful.
So, yeah, sometimes Thomas’s job was difficult. But he loved it.