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“Thank you so much, Liv,” Rafael said as he hurried his three-year old into Olivia’s apartment. “I don’t know how I forgot this doctor’s appointment…I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t off today.” Looking around quickly, he asked, “Are you sure it’s okay? I can take her with me, or reschedule–”
“Don’t be silly!” Liv exclaimed, smiling at the little girl who was currently grinning at her. “We’re going to get to know each other a bit, aren’t we, Mimi?”
Mimi began hopping up and down. “Uh-HUH!” she giggled, then began to spin around in circles–typical busybee behavior for this little one. Rafael reached over to stop her, one hand resting on her head, despite the little poufs of hair he’d styled carefully. Bending down, he physically turned her busy body so she was looking at him.
Once her eyes settled on his face, he smiled. “Be a good girl,” he told her with wide eyes, and she nodded and wiggled under his hand.
“Oh-TAY, Papi!” she declared. “I…WILL!” Turning to look at Liv again, she said, “Hi Wivvy…d’ya wike to do fun stuff?”
“I LOVE to do fun stuff,” Olivia countered, then nudged Rafael. “Go on. I’ve got it. She’s not the first kid I’ve watched. She’s not even YOUR first kid that I’ve watched.”
He rolled his eyes. “Okay. I should be back in a couple hours. Thanks again.” Catching Mimi’s eye, he pointed at her. “I mean it…be a good girl. Make Papi proud, okay?”
“Tay! Bye!” She waved as Olivia shut the door behind him and locked it. When Liv turned back around, Mimi looked at her very seriously. “I…I…not s’posed to touch da door. It make Sahdo stared. I gots to wait til I get big and have a tey.”
Liv smirked. “Sounds like a good plan, Miss Mimi. So what would you like to do today? We have a little while before lunch time, and then your papi says it’s naptime after that. Do you like to color? I remember your big sister used to love to color! That was one of Marley’s favorite things when she’d visit me.” Truthfully, that’s all Liv had planned for this spur-of-the-moment change in her day. Marley had loved anything artistic, and would sit for hours and color. Liv had been crossing her fingers that the girl’s little sister was the same.
Mimi tilted her head. “You know how to make pway dough? Gwam-gwam makes pway dough, an’...an’ it’s so TOOL! She makes it wif blue an’ sparkles.”
Olivia thought on that one. She’d never been a crafty mom, and any playdough Noah had once owned had long since rotted and been thrown out. “Nope, I’m not a playdough kinda gal, Meems. Do you like puzzles? I think I have some of Noah’s old puzzles, if you’d like…”
Mimi tapped her chin, and for a second, Liv swore she was looking at Marlene from ten years ago. “You got any wegos?” she asked. “Or some blocks. I’m good at buildin’!”
Liv snapped her fingers. “You know, I think I might. Come with me.” She led the little girl into the guest bedroom, then opened the closet door. Stepping inside, she reached onto the top shelf and pulled out an old cylindrical container. It wasn’t very big, but it might just work for their purposes today. “These were Noah’s when he was your age,” she told Mimi, guiding her into the living room, in front of the couch. “Here, let me get the lid off…I know it’s not a lot, but I bet you could build something with these.” Carefully, she spilled some of the contents onto the floor.
Mimi immediately bent over on her knees, rear in the air, her eyes getting a close view at the old-fashioned tinkertoys Liv had just laid out for her. “Oh. My. Gwavy,” the little girl gasped in surprise. “Dese are so tool!” She picked up a long stick in one hand and a round piece with holes in the other. “Do I stick dem together?” she wondered aloud, trying to make the stick enter and stay in one of the holes. She used the middle hole first, which was far too big. “Nope. Not dat one…too big wight dere…maybe here…” Trying a smaller hole, the stick entered and stayed. “It worked! Wookit, Wivvy! Dey stick together!”
“I see!” Olivia responded, taking delight in Mimi’s fascination with the toy. She hadn’t even thought about these tinkertoys since Noah was six or seven, it seemed. They sat on the floor for over an hour, working together, until Mimi finally looked up at Olivia and made a face. “What’s wrong?” Liv asked curiously.
Mimi patted her stomach. “My belly teeps tellin’ me it’s hungwy,” she replied, then picked up another stick to attach to her project.
Liv glanced at the clock. “Well, that would be because lunch was a half hour ago,” she chuckled, standing up. “What do you like to eat, Mimi? Do you like peanut butter, or would you rather have chicken nuggets?”
Mimi’s eyes grew large. “Ooh! Chicky nuggets!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Papi never make me chicky nuggets at home…he only make me a sammich an’ stuff. Papi telled me I gotta wait to eat chicky nuggets at Chicken Fil-A. But Sahdo say we don’t eat at Chicken Fil-A tause dey mean to gay people. Sahdo say I gotta eat chicky nuggets from Mickey Dee’s wike all de kids in da whole world!” She stretched her arms out wide, then looked curiously at Olivia. “Do you eat chicky nuggets at Chicken Fil-A, Wivvy?”
“Not often,” she replied, reaching into the freezer and watching the little girl follow her into the kitchen. “I usually don’t eat them, but Noah likes them sometimes. You remember Noah, right? He’s my little boy.” Pulling a recent photo off the fridge of herself and Noah, she handed it to Mimi. “Remember him?”
Mimi gasped loudly, then pointed at his picture. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “Dat’s my buddy! He tome to my house an’...an’ I tall him my buddy! Oh my gwavy, I didn’t know he’s your wittle boy! Does he wive here wif you?”
Liv nodded as she lay the nuggets on a microwaveable plate, along with some peas. “Yes, he does.”
“Where he at?” Mimi asked, hurrying over to the corner of the kitchen and looking down the hall. “Did he get in grounded? My sissy weft an’...an’ she didn’t even tell my papi where she go to! An she got in grounded! For a wong, wong time! An’...an’ she got so, so mad dat she hollered and she frowed stuff and it waked me up! But issa otay ‘tause Sahdo holded me an den when she stop, he put me back sweepin’.”
Liv slipped the food into the microwave as she listened to that story, trying to follow along. If she had to guess, Marley and Rafael had had some words over her leaving after opening that letter from her birth mom. She’d never known Marlene to throw a tantrum, at least not since she was Mimi’s age. But then again, she knew Marley had been pretty upset about that letter. “Was Marley okay after that?” she asked. “Did she calm down?”
“Uh-huh!” Mimi nodded. “An’ guess what? Sometimes I give my sissy some tissies, an’ Papi says dat so nice.” She smiled ear to ear, then added, “I da very nice sissy.”
Liv chuckled. “Oh you are, huh?”
Mimi nodded. “Where my buddy at? Does he wanna eat chicky nuggets wif us?”
Liv shook her head. “No, honey…he’s at school, eating there today. Here we go,” she said as the microwave timer rang. Pulling out the plate, she split the food onto two cooler, smaller plates. “Why don’t you go sit at the table? And what would you like to drink?”
Mimi climbed onto a chair, examining the plate Liv put in front of her. “What you gotted?”
Liv bit her lip, then replied, “What does your papi give you?”
“Um…um…he give me water at wunch,” came the honest answer, and Liv pulled out one small glass for the little girl, and a larger one for herself.
“You’ve got a smart papi,” she remarked. “Water is so good for you, and it’s one of my favorites! I bet your papi knows how good it is for you, too.”
“No,” Mimi said, poking a pea with her finger. “Papi gots dia-beets, so he gotta drink wotsa water,” the little girl explained. “But Sahdo don’t got dia-beets. He wikes coke an’ so do me an’ my sissy! But we don’t drink it very much tause Papi says we gonna GET dia-beets if we teep drinkin’ it.”
Liv looked away for a moment, hiding the laughter bubbling in her chest. Gathering her composure, she put down their glasses and handed Mimi a small fork. “Would you like some ketchup, too?”
Mimi nodded. “Yes pwease, Wivvy. Fanks!”
Liv sat next to her as she put the ketchup on the table, then picked up her fork and began to eat. It only took a minute for her to realize that Mimi was watching her and had yet to pick up her own fork. “Everything okay?” she asked.
Mimi looked confused. “I gotta tell Jesus fanks first, otay?”
“Of course!” Liv said, laying her fork down. She followed Mimi’s model and folded her hands. “Why don’t you say grace for us, okay?”
“Tay!” Mimi’s little eyes closed, and then she began to sing. “Oh, da Word is good to me, an’ so I fank da Word, for givin’ me da stuff I need, da sun an’ da wain an’ de apple seed, oh da Word is good to me. Ah-men!” She opened her eyes with a self-satisfied grin on her face. “We do dat one at stool,” she explained, then picked up her fork. “But I wike to sing it at home when Sahdo say it’s my turn.”
Olivia knew that Sonny was a practicing Catholic, and somewhere she remembered that Marlene also attended. But she wasn’t aware that the family prayed at home. She knew that Rafael had struggled with religion for years; that he and Sonny got married in a church and that Rafael had attended off and on. But for some reason, it had caught her by surprise to hear his little girl blessing her food. “Does Papi go with you to church?” she asked, ignoring the little bit of guilt she felt inside for being nosy.
“Sometimes,” Mimi answered, dipping a nugget. “Sissy an’ me go wif Sahdo, an’ sometimes Papi wants to talk to God too, so he tomes wif us.” She popped the nugget in her mouth and chewed. “Papi an’ God talk after Marwee Mae frowed a big ole fit.”
“Oh yeah?” Liv asked curiously. “How do you know that?”
“Tause I hear Papi. He say, ‘Oh Word! What I gonna DO wif her?” Mimi’s expression looked so identically close to the frustrated one Rafael often wore that Olivia found herself pressing her face into her shoulder, away from the little girl, just to hide her snickering.
“I see,” she finally returned, once she was able. “Does he ever say that about you?”
“No,” Mimi replied. “I da nice sissy.”
Liv narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Papi and Sahdo never have to speak to you? You never get into any trouble?”
“Mm-mm,” Mimi replied, then said, “I wike your peas, Wivvy.”
“I bet,” Liv chuckled at the little girl’s attempt to change the subject. “I heard awhile ago that somebody got very excited, trying to play on the bed with Pru, and accidentally hurt Pru’s leg.”
“Yeah,” Mimi said, sighing, then picked up a pea. “Pwu baby gots to be more tareful. She got her weg hurt, an…an’ guess what? She had to wear a big band-aid on her weg for a wong, wong time!”
“Really.”
“Uh-huh.” Mimi put the pea in her mouth. “I falled on her weg. But I didn’t mean to, an’ I say my sorries. Dat’s good, wight?” she asked, looking for affirmation, and Liv smiled and nodded at her.
“It sounds like you’re learning how to be a good person, huh?”
“Uh-huh! I wearnin’ how to be a good person,” she repeated. “An I’m a nice sistuh.”
Liv was doing everything she could not to snicker again when there was a knock at the door. “I bet that’s your papi!” she told Mimi as she stood and crossed the living room to open the door.
“Hey,” he greeted, handing her a latte. “How’d it go?”
“Thanks,” she replied as he walked in. “It’s been very educational.”
“Papi!” Mimi squealed, climbing down from the chair and running over for a hug.
He froze suddenly at Liv’s response, hugging the child grasping on his legs. “Exactly how educational?” he asked, and she could tell he was gritting his teeth.
“We eatin’ chicky nuggets!” Mimi told him as he picked her up, resting her at his hip. “Wivvy maked dem here…dey not from Chicken Fil-A!”
“Of course not,” Liv told him, rolling her eyes. “They’re mean to gay people.”
“That’s Sonny’s pet project, not mine,” Rafael countered, before picking a nugget off Mimi’s plate and eating it. “But he’s right.”
“Yeah, he is,” Liv agreed. “Oh my gravy. Watch what you’re eating there. I hear you’ve got the dia-beets.”
He put Mimi back in her chair and rolled his eyes. “Oh Lord. What else did she tell you?”
“That you give her water with lunch, and that you sometimes go with them to church, and that you and God hold conferences over Marley’s behavior, and that she hurt Pru’s leg but she said her sorries. And oh yes,” she snickered, “Mimi’s the nice sister.”
Rafael snorted, and Mimi looked his way, raising one eyebrow. “I AM da nice sissy, Papi!” she proclaimed.
“You are nice, most of the time,” he told her, “and you’re working on being nice ALL the time, right?”
She crossed her arms as she finished chewing her last nugget. “HMPH.”
“Hey Meems, would you like to take these Tinkertoys with you?” Liv asked. “Noah doesn’t use them anymore.”
“Yeah!” Mimi said happily, then reached over to climb into Rafael’s lap in the chair next to hers. “Didja know dat my buddy wives here?” she asked him. “Wif Wivvy?”
Green eyes wide, he whispered, “Oh my gravy! Isn’t that amazing?”
She pressed a hand on either side of his face and smiled sweetly. “Uh-huh.” Her mouth stretched into a big yawn.
Rafael stood up, heading toward the door, and Liv handed him the container of toys. “She loved these,” Liv told him. “That’s why she isn’t down for a nap yet…we lost track of time, building.”
He chuckled, then gazed lovingly at the little girl in his arms. “Yeah, she’s gonna be my little architect,” he bragged, then, “if she doesn’t become a gossip columnist.”
“Hey, good news!” Liv teased. “You’re gonna outlive your husband–he’s got a soda addiction.”
“Oh, that was so last month,” Rafael returned, and they both snickered as Mimi yawned and slipped two fingers into her mouth. “Thanks again, Liv.”
Liv glanced to his shoulder, to the child sleeping there. “Any time,” she promised, rubbing Mimi’s back gently. “Any time.”