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“Mooom! Mamaaa! Come on!! We’re taking too long”. My thoughts are interrupted by this familiar nagging. I put my lipstick down, still making sure that my make up looks okay. “Mama, hurry up!! I wanna see the jellyfishes!!”. A five year old boy comes running at me, clearly upset. “Rafael!! Be patient, Mama and I are almost ready”. Another familiar figure comes next to us, wearing a fancy black dress and white cardigan, they’re stunning, I can’t help but admire them, no matter how many days, months, and years we’ve been together. The beautiful angel comes closer to me, with their blond hair still wet from the shower. “Hurry up, the little boy wants to see the jellyfish world”. They kiss me. “Ewwwww” the dark haired boy nags. Love is all that I can feel for those two.
“There we are! AquaRio.” I say, while untying Rafa’s seatbelt. “YAY!!!!” the kid celebrates. The three of us hold hands while we walk into the aquarium. It’s a lovely summer day, I used to hate summer, until I met her, and saw how beautiful she looks in the sunlight. “Three half price tickets, please” Lili is always the one to talk to the sale people, after all, in this house we’re all autistic, but guess my wife is better at doing the people things.
“Mom look!! A shark!”. Lili chuckles. “Woahh, aren’t you scared, sweetie?”. Our son gets down his mom’s arms and comes in my direction, hugging me. “Of course not! I’m brave just like you and Mama!! Didn’t you two fight that evil monster called Eddie?” Lili and I smile at eachother. “Yeah honey, we did!” I pet Rafa’s curls. We admire the fishes together, it feels like we’re swimming together with them.
We sit on a bench to rest for a while. We’ve been walking around for nearly an hour, we’re all tired, except for Rafa, the young child seems more energetic than ever. “Bon Bon Bon Jellyfish Planet where are you~?” Rafael is obsessed for jellyfishes, in fact, his hyperfixation on the animal was one of the first signs of autism he showed. Although we’ve been in the aquarium for so long, there’s no sign of his dear friends.
Lili and I stare at eachother, we have this habit of communicating without words. “I don’t think there are any jellyfishes here…” It’s what we need to tell Rafa, but God knows how the little boy would react. Rafael is a very intense little boy (just like Mom…), he’s very reactive when his expectations are broken. “So honey…” I decide to break the silence, “Maybe the jellyfishes are asleep right now… You know, when it’s too hot, they go deep in the ocean to bear with the heat, so maybe we won’t see them today.” Rafa looks at me with his deep green eyes, I can see tears forming. “But! No… They are my friends, they want to see me! I can swim and look for them!!” He starts to get nervous. “Sweetie, calm down” Lili grabs his hand but he backs off. “No! No! I will find them!!” Our son runs away from us, we run after him, desperately.
In a blink of an eye, he’s gone. We’ve never known why, but Rafael has this ability to simply vanish whenever he wants, wherever he wants. “What do we do?” I ask Lili, almost crying. “ Sorry, it was my fault, I shouldn’t have told him, that wouldn’t have happened if you were the one speaking to him. I-” Suddenly, I feel lovely lips pressing against mine. God, I love them so much. “Hey.” My wife let go go of me. “We’re going to find him. We always do. He’s like that, it’s not your fault, Bella.” Somehow, that kiss and words were enough to make me calm down. Oh, LIlica, you never fail to calm me down. “Okay. Let’s look for them. We just have to look for his friends”.
We start to look for the Jellyfish Planet, but there are no signs indicating where the jellyfishes could possibly be. There are also no workers around, making it impossible to know the place.”Li… What if we don’t find him? What if someone takes him away from us? I’m scared.” I cry. “Bella… we just need to keep calm, we”ll find him-”. A familiar voice interrupts her. “JELLYFISH PLANET!!!”. We look around, to find a beautiful aquarium full of jellyfishes, right behind us, and a little boy jumping around, in pure joy.
“Rafael!!!” both moms scream relieved. “Mama!!Mom!! Waaaaaaa!!’ We hug and cry together, watching the jellyfishes dance peacefully. I love the Jellyfish Planet. I love my baby boy. I love my dear wife. I love our precious family.
At that night, Rafael slept with Lili and me, to the sound of Bon Bon Bon lullaby. Lili must’ve liked, because they fell asleep just like our boy, in my arms, holding me tight.