Chapter Text
Dinner was quiet today, as it usually was. It was easier to just not say anything. It was way better than the yelling.
Purple finished her casserole and was left staring at her peas.
Peas were still disgusting.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
Purple flinched and put some peas on her plate. She hadn’t realized she’d been staring for a while. She hoped Dad wasn’t too mad.
“Why do you care?”
Purple looked up.
Oh. Dad wasn’t talking to her.
“I spent so much time and effort making food for us - something I thought we agreed was your job by the way - and now you don’t even have the decency to be grateful?”
“I didn’t ask you to do it!”
Purple didn’t know what to do. Mom hadn’t shouted back in a long time. Were they going to yell again?
“Someone had to, and you clearly see yourself above this kind of thing, so yeah, you did!”
They were yelling again.
Of course they were yelling again.
She shoveled the rest of the peas in her mouth as fast as she could, trying to ignore the rising voices.
“Oh what? Am I suddenly not good enough for you?”
“You doing absolutely nothing and expecting me to do everything isn’t good enough for me!”
“I’m tired of spending my entire life doing things for you!”
“I’m tired of spending my entire life doing things for you!”
“I never asked you to do that!”
“And so now this is my fault? And here I thought you couldn’t get any more selfish!”
The peas were gone and her head was pounding and Mom and Dad weren’t looking at her.
Of course they weren’t. They were arguing again.
Purple wished they would just fight. Punching and kicking had helped Purple feel better when she was angry. And it was quieter. Then whoever was stronger was clearly right and then they could work it out together.
And then the yelling stopped.
Mom was staring at Dad, her eyes wide. Dad was giving Mom a look.
“If you think you can disrespect me again, maybe you need to learn another lesson.”
Mom shook her head a bit too quickly and looked down.
“That’s what I thought.”
Purple’s breath had stopped.
Something was wrong.
Something was so very wrong.
Her cheek was stinging. Her bruises were itching. Something inside her trembled and shook. She shoved the box of feelings down, down, down.
Dad sighed and his shoulders changed. His hands relaxed. He started blinking again.
“Thanks for eating your peas, Purple.”
Oh. He had noticed.
“Oh. Yeah.” He was thanking her because she did the right thing. Because big girls followed the rules and did the right thing. If you followed the rules, you didn’t get hurt.
Purple put her dishes in the sink and went outside. Not the backyard. She wanted to watch the cars go by and count the colors. Most cars she saw were blue.
It was summer, so the sun was supposed to be way up in the sky, but it was covered with clouds, making everything gray.
She sat on the porch and looked out, waiting for a car to pass by. She drummed her fingers on her knee, pretending to listen to a song she was learning on the violin.
A car passed by. White. One. She drummed some more.
The next was black. One. She started humming the melody. That meant the main part of the song. Slate had told her that violins had the melody a lot in orchestra, so that made them extra cool.
Another black one. Two. She stopped humming and started singing it. She had forgotten some of the words, so she just hummed those parts.
The next two were blue6. One. Two. Singing was hard. She didn’t always get the right note. Her voice didn’t always do what she wanted it to do. That was okay though. She’d just have to practice singing too.
“Aaaaahhhh!”
Purple turned and stood up. It was coming from a few houses down the street.
“Noooooo!”
What was happening? She didn’t recognize that voice. It sounded like a little kid.
What if someone was being mean to them, like Sepia had been mean to her?
What if that little kid needed a hero, someone strong to save them?
Purple stood up and ran down the sidewalk in the direction of the sound. Her shoes pounded on the sidewalk.
What would she find when she got there? Evil sticks she’d have to beat up? A giant monster she could fight?
The yelling got louder before abruptly switching to sobs just as Purple turned the corner.
Sitting on Slate’s lawn was a little girl. Her cheeks were covered in tears and her fists clutched the grass.
“Hello,” Purple said, and waved.
The little girl looked up, then back down again.
“Why are you crying? Was there a bad guy or a monster?”
She shook her head. “The… the monsters o-o-only come out- out at night!” She wailed again.
Purple looked around but didn’t see anything weird. The lawn looked like it always had. “Then what’s wrong?”
The girl pointed at one of the trees. “My ball!”
Purple looked up. Stuck on one of the lower branches was a bright neon ball.
“And Mommy and Daddy are-aren’t here and Slate ca-ca-can’t ‘cause he’s b-b-busy!”
Purple looked up at the ball stuck in the branches. It wasn’t too high up, and it didn’t look too stuck.
“I can get it.”
The girl looked up at her, blinking back the tears she was still young enough to have. “You will?”
Purple nodded. “Yep!” How hard could it be?
She walked up to the tree and grabbed the shortest branch that was just within reach. The bark was rough on her hands and she couldn’t quite get her hand all the way around it.
She tried pulling herself up but it didn’t work. She’d have to do something else.
“Is there a stool or a chair somewhere?”
The girl shook her head.
Purple frowned and looked around. She needed something to step on, like a ladder.
If she had wings, this would be so much easier.
And then she saw an orange bucket pushed up against the fence. She grabbed it, and it felt heavy. It was big so it was probably strong. She flipped it upside down and pushed it against the tree.
She felt the little girl staring at her as she stepped onto the bucket, which shifted a little under her weight. That was fine, though. She grabbed onto the branch and pulled herself up into the tree.
The girl gasped and Purple stood up, trying not to wobble and fall off. Her arms wrapped around the trunk like a hug. The ball was right above her head. She slowly let go and reached up. Her finger brushed the edge of the ball. She stood on her tip-toes and pushed the ball out of its trap.
The ball fell to the ground and the little girl cheered. Purple sat back down on the branch and jumped off.
“Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” The little girl said, hugging the ball to her chest and smiling up at Purple. “You’re the best!”
Purple grinned. “You’re welcome!” The best. “I’m Purple.” She held out her hand like she had seen the grown-ups do.
The girl slapped it in a high-five. She was clearly too young to understand. “I’m Heather!” Then she turned away and ran over to the pavement where she started bouncing the ball up and down. She wasn’t very good at it, and the ball kept rolling away from her.
Purple shouted out a goodbye, which Heather distractedly returned, and Purple walked back to her house.
Hopefully Mom and Dad had stopped fighting by now.