Stone
Moving, unboxing, and getting the new house set up had all been tasks that were accomplished while my little unicorn was covering one of his assignments. As soon as we’d gotten to the assembling boxes portion of the packing, he’d had a mini unicorn meltdown trying to decide where to start first. I’d quickly identified the problem, he’d only been able to see the apartment as one massive, daunting task, and had immediately started over thinking everything. I’d put the boxes away until he’d left in the morning and never let him catch sight of them again.
Little by little I’d started moving things, once we’d gotten the house painted the color scheme we’d chosen. Pale gray for all but our bedroom and his playroom with white trim, doors and ceilings. Soft and with all the windows to let the sunlight in, we wouldn’t need to turn a light on until evening.
A painting crew had come in and taken care of everything, and I’d moved us one room at a time, so nothing was too jarring for him. Saying goodbye to his first home on his own was no small step. He’d given himself independence by moving away from his parents, now we’d be close enough that he wouldn’t miss them so much. We’d worked out the commute issues too, now that Payden’s boss had moved him to cover the entertainment section. If he covered an evening event we drove to it together, with me behind the wheel, since traffic, especially at night, made him nervous. There was always something going on that I could drop in on while he was covering his story. I coordinated with Easton, and he sent me where he needed me to go.
Life was good. The new guitarists I was working with were down to earth, chill guys who were serious about getting better. Turned out that Brennon, the one who kept staring at his hands, was super shy, on top of being new to the band. We were building his confidence slowly, by inviting a handful of people to their practices. He was starting to lift his head and even found his smile.
It felt good seeing him take that first step, just like it had been amazing to see my little unicorn getting to be little at every opportunity. Elise had taught me how to make and freeze large batches of our favorite foods, like spaghetti and meatballs, egg rolls, and chicken nuggets, so on the nights when I didn’t have time to cook we’d still have a proper meal to put in our bellies. Her eyes had welled up with tears, and she’d hugged a hunk of stuffing out of me when I’d asked for help, since I didn’t have much experience in the kitchen. I hadn’t understood why until she’d explained that it was a mother’s nature to wonder if her kids were living on Pop Tarts and microwaved meals.
We’d started with homemade nuggets, because those were Payden’s favorite. We’d even found recipes for dipping sauces. I had a journal on a shelf in the kitchen that I was rapidly fillingwith the recipes I came across, usually while I was scrolling my social media feeds, where they constantly cropped up. Payden always lets me know if they’d been a hit, or if I should delete it. The ones he loved went into the journal the others, straight into the trash.
Today was a rare day off for both of us, and I knew just where I’d find him now that I’d finished unloading the dishwasher. Sure enough, laughter drifted up the hallway as I approached his playroom, painted to look like a magical forest full of frolicking unicorns, with a train track running through it. There was even a unicorn in a conductor’s hat, horn poking through the hole in the front as it waved. We’d had corner shelves built, where his two railway stations proudly sat. The original one I’d made for him, and the new one I’d gotten him once I’d found the perfect one.
Yes. We’d gotten Thomas’ station, complete with Mr. Conductor and Sir Tophen Hatt action figures, and my boy had been a very happy unicorn when he’d seen the tracks running over top of the bookcase shelves we’d had built into the back wall. They were deep enough that the tracks made a loop, with plenty of space for his toys to fit on the shelves, too. I watched the sunlight dance through his hair while he danced, making all the chugga-chugga-woo-woo sounds as he wiggled his tush. The table at the center of the room had unicorn chairs and a massive amount of art supplies in the drawers, neatly organized, beside a package of wet wipes, not that there was anything truly messy in there.
“Time to go little unicorn,” I said as I let my arms dangle over his shoulders while I pressed a kiss to the top of his head. He smelled like sunshine and ice cream, since we’d had dessert for breakfast again. As far as I was concerned, it was the perfect way to kick start a day off.
“I love my room,” he said, tugging my arms until I hugged, then tickled him until he dropped onto the floor and wiggled away.
“RAWR!” I growled, chasing after him the way I had that day in the ball pit. “Silly unicorn, don’t you know that you can’t get away from the big, growly papa bear!”
He scrambled around, trying to regain his footing, but each time he tried he wound up laughing so hard he tripped over his feet, landed at mine, and got tickled again. We were both breathless by the time I flopped down on the floor beside him to stare at a ceiling we’d had painted to look like the sky. A few winged unicorns peeked out, while one napped on a cloud.
“I love this space too,” I said. “Coming in here is like stepping into someplace magical. I love peeking in to see you daydreaming on one of your cloud pillows.”
“Where did you find those!”
“I’m not sure I remember,” I said, humming. “I looked at so many sites they all sort of blurred together.”
“I bet,” he grumbled, scrunching his nose at me as he climbed to his feet.
I stood, chuckling at the disgruntled look on his face. “Can’t go giving away all my secrets, now can I?”
“I’m watching you, mister,” he said as he headed for the door.
“And I am definitely watching that sweet tush,” I remarked, snickering when he paused long enough to wiggle it at me.
I caught up to him in the hallway and palmed a cheek, squeezing to remind him just how much I loved him being sassy.
“Eep,” he yelped, dancing away from me.
Keys, wallet, phone, shoes on, door locked, we were ready to hit the road,
“We still haven’t decided if we want a dog or a cat,” Payden reminded me as we turned onto the road leading to the shelter.
“Well, since we couldn’t decide, I figured we’d go meet the animals and see if any of them choose us,” I said.
“That’s a way better idea than trying to decide beforehand.”
“Especially when we kept coming up with reasons to change our minds.”
“True. I am so excited. I can’t believe I finally get to have a pet. We are going to be the best pet parents ever.”
“You best believe it,” I said. “I’ve never spent time around an animal. It will be fun getting to learn their personality. I’ve been watching these videos of pet parents and the things they caption, holy shit, talk about knowing your pet, the phrases never fail to match the expressions.”
“I loved the one you found of the lady who does voice overs in her cat videos, all those southern sayings are a real hoot, as mom would say.”
