AllFreeNovel
Share Us
T W E L V E
- Finn -
Lukas sat on the bench beside me, his feet dangling a few inches off the ground. "I'm sorry, Finn. I'm sure you have better things to do than wait here with me."
"I don't mind," I said, checking to make sure his little beanie was pulled down on his head and that his scarf was wrapped tightly around his neck.
"I'm always the last picked up. Except for one time. One time, Jaime was still waiting for his mom when mine came."
I didn't remember that, but it wasn't usually my job to wait with the kids. Then again, when you're a volunteer, it's hard to know where your duties start and stop. But I liked Lukas. He was a cool kid, and I could tell he really wanted to learn the guitar. Unlike some of the other kids, who I suspect were forced to pick an afterschool activity and chose music lessons to avoid unnecessary sweating and socializing. "Sometimes it's nice to just sit."
He looked at me like I was crazy.
"You disagree?"
"If you think sitting is nice, you should try sitting and playing Smash Brothers."
I smiled. "I'm not really into sitting, per se. What I mean is that the world moves really fast, and it's nice to have an excuse to slow down for a minute every now and then."
"Easy for you to say. You're not sitting here because your mom forgot about you."
"Your mom didn't forget about you. She's probably just stuck in traffic or something."
"I know you’re trying to cheer me up, but I'm not stupid."
"Can I be honest with you?" I asked. "As a friend?"
He looked up at me from between the chunky blond bangs framing his eyes.
"I think you're being too hard on your mom. I bet she does all kinds of stuff for you all day long, stuff you don't even realize she’s doing for you."
He shrugged.
"Being a mom is more work than you think. I bet she makes you nice dinners and helps you with your homework. I bet she got you those cool boots you have on, and she's supportive when you want to practice the guitar."
"She is, yeah," he said, kicking one of his Spiderman boots out so I could admire it.
"I bet sometimes she has something she'd rather do than drive you around, but she takes you where you need to go instead."
He went quiet for a second. "Maybe."
"Definitely," I said. "And someday you'll be a grown-up, and you'll wish you were nicer to her."
"Do you wish you were nicer to your mom?"
"I do. Especially because she lives really far away now, so I only get to see her a few times a year."
His cute little face grew serious, as if I'd shared a deep pain with him. "I'm sorry you miss your mom."
"That's okay," I said. "I only mentioned it because I think sometimes when you're frustrated, it helps to try and look at your situation from another person’s point of view."
"Carly doesn't even have a mom now."
"I know," I said, picturing the little girl Lukas always tried to sit next to. "That's really sad, don't you think?"
He nodded. "Sometimes I worry she's going to be sad forever. It used to be easy to make her smile, but now she doesn't even smile when you play the ‘Smelly Cat’ song."
The thought occurred to me that maybe I should make a special effort to involve her in class, especially since the few times I'd met her dad, he'd come across as cold and corporate. Poor kid. "Maybe you could write a song that would make her smile?"
