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“So you like it?”
“Yes!” she giggled.
I nodded as I passed her the toast. “There you go then.”
She frowned at me. “There I go when?”
I rolled my eyes as inconspicuously as possible. “You’re good at skipping and you like it. It’s cause and effect.”
“What’s course and–”
“Roman, can you take Maddy to school this morning?” Mum called from her room.
I looked at Maddy and didn’t know why I was expecting her to be on my side. But she was beaming from ear to ear.
“I can’t,” I replied, but Maddy’s face didn’t fall.
“Roman, I’m just asking you this once!” Mum.
“Except, it’s not going to be just this once, is it?” I called back.
“Fine. No! But can you just do one thing without arguing?”
“Okay, but this is it. For the year,” I told her. “After this, it’s like, all arguments, all the time.”
“Oh, so like usual, then?” she replied, but I heard the smile in her voice.
I looked down at Maddy and sighed.
I didn’t want to say that I’d been practising Katy Perry songs overnight, but I may have accidentally listened to ‘Firework’ a couple of times the night before. For absolutely no reason whatsoever.
“Fine!” I called, then looked back at Maddy. “You ready?” I asked.
She gave me a big, serious nod. “Ready.”
I happened to look down and saw she had her shoes on the wrong feet.
“Uh...” I started, having absolutely no idea how to manage this. So, I just pointed.
She looked down, then up at me with a wide smile. “I did it myself.”
I nodded. “I can tell. Park your butt.”
She dropped to the floor, and I knelt in front of her. I didn’t know what I was doing, it was just instinct. Given my instinct wasn’t to hit her or tell her she was useless or stupid, I figured it was safe to follow it. I was a great many things, and I was known for inflicting pain on others without thinking about it, but generally that didn’t extend to tiny humans. It would never extend to tiny humans.
“It’s a-cos they’re melcro,” she said proudly.
I raised my eyebrow sceptically at her. “Melcro?”
She nodded. “It sticks. Mrs Nakmanura...” She frowned. “Naknarura...” She huffed. “The Year Three teacher said melcro has hoops and loops, and it sticks.”
“Velcro,” I told her. “You mean velcro.”
“Oh. Do I?”
I nodded as I swapped her shoes over. “And it’s hooks and loops. Like this.” I showed her with my fingers. “It’s lots of little ones and makes it strong. Because to pull it apart, you’ve got to unhook so many.”
“When did you learn so much about velcro?” Mum asked, appearing behind me.
