“I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. . .” Taylor wandered through the yard, hidden inside a box. He’d gotten Dan to cut out some holes for his arms and slits for his eyes. It was his box costume.
Yesterday, they had moved into the new house. Actually, Taylor kept reminding everyone, it was really an old house. There were a lot of new things in it, though. New paint and a new floor in the laundry room. And a new back porch, too. Taylor liked the new house a lot, even though he hadn’t even slept in his room yet. The smell of the paint made him cough, even if he opened up the window and stuck his head out. Nora said he could sleep in it tonight. Last night, he had slept on an air mattress on the floor of the living room. Ike and Zac slept there too, even though they could have slept in their own rooms, if they wanted. They wanted to sleep on the air mattress, though, because it sounded like it might be fun.
Yesterday, there had been movers who came to the old house and put all of the boxes into a big truck. They hadn’t spoken much English, but some of them had spoken Spanish. Some of them had spoken some other language; Taylor didn’t know what. He liked the movers a lot.
Nora had talked to the Spanish speaking movers and told them what to pack. A lot of the movers had just packed anything, though. One of them had packed Isaac’s sandwich when he left it on the counter. Isaac, thinking he’d lost it, had forgotten all about it until Nora had opened a box this morning and yelled “Where in the world did this sandwich come from?”
Isaac had looked interested. “Is it peanut butter and jelly?”
Nora nodded. “It’s peanut butter and jelly.”
“That’s where it went!” Isaac grinned. “I knew I didn’t lose it! Somebody just packed it!”
“Ike!” Nora wailed.
“What?” Isaac was taken aback. “It wasn’t me. . .”
Now, Nora was at work and Dan was unpacking things. Taylor had been helping, but he wasn’t anymore. Instead, he was playing with the box. It was his box. He’d even written his name on it. “Taylor’s Bocks.”
There was a rustle in the grass behind him. “That isn’t the way you spell box.”
Taylor jumped, turning around. He didn’t recognize the voice. “This is my box.”
“That isn’t the way you spell it.” The owner of the voice was a little bit smaller than he was, a tiny, earnest little girl with big dark eyes and wisps of brown hair escaping from a wavy ponytail. “You spell it with an ‘x’ on the end.”
“Are you my new friend?” Taylor asked. “Nora told me I would make a new friend at the new house.”
The little girl paused, her hands on her hips. “Okay,” she agreed. “What’s your name?”
“Taylor,” said Taylor. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Madeleine Margaret Killilea,” said the little girl. “I’m six.”
“I’m seven,” said Taylor. “I’m older than you.”
“My birthday is coming up,” said Maddie. “In September.”
“I already had my birthday,” Taylor told her.
“I know you did,” said Madeleine. “You told me.”
“You are supposed to be a boy,” Taylor said.
“I’m a girl,” Madeleine corrected.
“But my new friend is supposed to be a boy, I think.” Taylor bit his lip. “You aren’t even a little bit a boy?”
“No,” said Madeleine. “But you don’t have to be my boyfriend or anything.”
“Okay,” Taylor agreed, satisfied. “Do you want to come inside my new house?”
“I’m not allowed unless I ask my mother first,” said Maddie. “So she knows where I am.”
“Oh,” said Taylor, sadly. “She doesn’t know where you is now?”
“I’m allowed to go outside,” Maddie explained, “only not inside. Unless I ask.”
“Ask your mommy,” Taylor suggested.
“I have a new friend.” Taylor skipped up the back steps and climbed on top of a box that was sitting on the kitchen floor. He stretched his arms out, grinning. “I have a new fri-end!”
“That’s nice, honey.” Nora yawned, brushing sweaty strands of hair out of her eyes. “Who labelled these boxes? Why are there Christmas ornaments in a box marked ‘kitchen’?”
“You writed on some of them,” Taylor supplied.
“I swear to God. . .” Nora shook her head, then grinned. “At least unpacking is more fun than packing.”
Taylor wandered into the living room, where Dan had unpacked an aged Rubic’s cube and hadn’t been able to resist playing with it. “I have a new friend,” Taylor announced.
Dan grinned, squinting at the Rubic’s cube. “Me too.”
“She’s a girl, but she’s not my girlfriend or anything,” Taylor went on. “Nope.”
“Where did you meet her?” Dan asked.
Taylor was nonchalant. “While I was in my box.”
“Your box!” Dan exclaimed. “Was she invisible?”
Taylor shook his head. “No, she was not invisdible. She was real. A real girl.”
Upstairs, Isaac was balancing on the back of folding chair as he rummaged through a box that was bigger than he was. “Are you looking for a new friend?” Taylor asked.
“What?” Isaac’s voice was muffled. His head, arms and entire upper body were buried in the box. “A new what?”
“A new friend,” Taylor repeated, leaning his mouth against the side of the box and yelling. Maybe he leaned a little too hard.
“Whoa!” Isaac yelled as the folding chair slid out from under him and he fell into the box, which tipped over.
Taylor peered into the edge of the box. “Ike, are you okay?”
Isaac nodded, crawling out of the box and blinking a few times. “I’m okay.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t do that anymore,” Taylor suggested.
“No, this is better,” Isaac grinned, crawling back into the box. “Now I don’t have to stand on anything.”
“Zac,” Taylor sang, “Zac, I have a new friend.”
Zac looked up. “I thought I was your new friend.”
“No.” Taylor shook his head. “You’re my old friend.”
“I’m not old,” Zac pointed out.
“But I knowed you for a long time,” Taylor reminded him.
“But I’m still not old,” said Zac. “I’m just little.”
“Littler than me,” Taylor agreed.
“When I get bigger, I’ll beat you up,” Zac volunteered, as if he were offering to do something nice.
Taylor shook his head. “No.”
“Why?” Zac wanted to know.
“I don’t want you to do that,” said Taylor.
It took a long time for Maddie to come back from her house. When she came back, she was with a chubby little boy toddling along on dimpled legs and a short lady with a wispy, gray-streaked brown ponytail. The lady had a curly-headed baby riding in a carrier that was strapped to her chest, and was pulling a wagon.
“This is him,” Maddie said to the lady. “Right there.”
“Hello, there,” said the lady.
Taylor ducked his head, blushing. “Hi.” He looked up at Maddie. “Is this your mommy?”
Maddie nodded. “And this is my brother Drew and my sister Rosie.”
“I got two brothers,” Taylor told her.
“I have. . .” Maddie turned to her mother. “How many? Drew, and Joey, and Ciaran and Josh and Alex. Five.”
“Are you lying?” Taylor looked at Maddie’s mother. “Is she lying?”
Maddie’s mother shook her head, looking a bit embarassed. “No, she’s got five brothers.”
“And one sister?” Taylor asked.
“Four,” Maddie corrected.
“Do you have anybody who is seven years old and is a boy?” Taylor asked Maddie’s mother.
She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Maddie is going to be seven years old.”
Taylor sighed. “Yeah, she telled me that,” he said, as Maddie piped “I already told you that!”
“Honey, is your mommy or daddy home?” Maddie’s mother asked. “I would like to meet them.”
Taylor shook his head sadly. “I don’t know where they are. Well, I don’t know where my daddy is, but I do know where my mommy is, but you can’t meet her, I don’t think.” He smiled. “You want to come in my new house and see Dan and Nora? They aren’t my mommy and daddy, but they’re kind of like it, and maybe they’re going to be someday. But I don’t know if they will because Dan told me not to get my hopes up because he doesn’t know if they can be sure yet. But he says there’s a pretty good chance, and Nora said not to worry about it. So I’m not worried.”
Mrs. Killilea, who hadn’t quite followed this, smiled bravely. “Sure, Taylor, I’d love to meet them. But I don’t want to go tramping through the house when everybody is trying to unpack-”
Taylor stopped and turned to face her, his eyes wide. “How did you know my name was Taylor?”
“Maddie told me,” Mrs. Killilea explained.
“Oh!” Taylor nodded, satisfied, and continued leading them into the house. “Because I thought maybe you were psycho. Like I saw on TV, the psycho network. You can call on the phone and talk to a real psycho who will know all about you. I wanted to call, but I’m not old enough.” He raised his voice a few decibels. “Nora!” he yelled. “I brought your new friend!”
Mrs. Killilea dropped off a plate of brownies, apologized for dropping in, and she and Nora proceeded to have a very long, very boring conversation about the neighborhood. Taylor dragged Maddie upstairs to show her his room. The ceiling was blue, with white clouds painted on. Dan had done them with a sponge, so they looked like real clouds. The sky blue color continued until about half way up from the floor, forming the background for gray castle walls that were painted to look like real stones. There was a turret painted in one corner that went all the way up to the ceiling, with a princess in it and a knight climbing up the side, and a dragon on the other wall, a palace guard roasting a marshmallow in his fiery breath.
Dan had added green mountains in back of the castle walls, with an ocean between them and a ship in it. He had also, at Taylor’s request, added Superman, flying through the sky. There were lots of other things, too. . . anal little details Dan hadn’t been able to resist adding. He’d had fun.
“Wow,” Maddie breathed, when she stepped into the room. “It’s like a castle in here.”
Taylor grinned. “I know. I got to help. It was lots of fun. Do you want to play castle?”
Maddie nodded. “Yeah! I’ve never seen anything as neat as this in my whole entire life, I think.”
Dinner that night was Cheerios with strawberries on top, out of plastic bowls, on the back porch. It was a warm summer evening, the sky a darkening pink.
“Let’s do this every night,” Zac suggested.
“Yeah,” Isaac agreed.
“You’d get sick of it sooner than you’d think,” Dan told them.
“Not me,” Taylor protested.
“Not me, either,” said Zac.
“Not me, either,” repeated Isaac.
“Not me, either,” Nora agreed.
Dan grinned. “Okay. I was wrong, I guess.”
“You were wrong,” Taylor agreed. “But that’s okay, though.”
“Just don’t do it again,” Nora smiled.
“You said you was always right, Dan. . .” Zac began, as Dan wisely changed the subject.
“So, do you guys think you’re going to like it here?”
“Mmmhmm,” Zac agreed.
“I think so,” Isaac allowed.
Taylor grinned. “Yep!”