To my surprise, our trip back from Oregon was smooth and entirely uneventful. I started to feel like it was just the calm before some terrible storm of misfortune crashed into our lives. Being used to some bumpy roads, I'd been expecting something to go wrong somewhere. No one gave us a hard time after I made my speech. No one harassed us in town. No mysterious ex-lovers from Shelly’s past decided to show up and convince her to stay in Shamrock. No one from my high school popped up to try and tell everyone I was the father of her child. Everything was so peacefully normal, almost like Shamrock was completely isolated from the trouble going on in the rest of the world, leaving only drama for the residents of my old small town to deal with.
We all enjoyed the time together at my parents’ graves, making it the first time it felt mostly nice to be there. The usual melancholy and guilt I felt when visiting the graves was only at the back of my mind instead of trying to dominate every thought that ran through my head. Rebecca and Megan didn’t find it weird at all, making the whole thing a little easier on my heart. I’d made solid steps in moving forward with my parents’ deaths, though I still found myself affected by them more than I cared for, despite how I had told my old school I was more than just my parents’ deaths. Rebecca said she found it sweet that we still took time out to visit them after all the years that had gone by. I had been a little nervous about how I might react after the Sphere tried to present itself as my mother during our encounter, so having a little extra support with me went a long way.
We were all back home, safe and sound, and I was trying to enjoy a little relaxation in the downtime between being carved up by glass and possibly being lit on fire by a madman. That nice plan for relaxation almost hit a snag when Megan and Ryan were both invited to a kid’s birthday party. Sam, the birthday girl, was in Megan’s class, but she invited Ryan since Megan was always dragging the poor boy around with her. Even at the kid’s young age, Sam knew that they were going to be a pair and one was not to be excluded. That party was still a couple of hours away, so we were making sure we had everything ready to go. The gift I had to beg the ladies to help with since I had no idea what to buy a little girl I didn’t know.
Despite wanting to relax in the comfort of my own home for a little while, the birthday party created a small distraction from the world being abuzz about me. Lizzy and I made the news in Vegas, just as we’d both expected when the dust settled. Funnily enough, her identity hadn’t been revealed to everyone yet, which she rubbed in my face a few times. Her real feelings were betrayed whenever her eyes were glued to my name on our TV whenever the news brought me up. On account of the news bringing me up daily, I caught her giving me plenty of worried glances. Like with so many other things, there was no putting the toothpaste back in the tube. We just had to live with what we had in front of us.
The joy of everyone and the minor annoyance of me, Lizzy decided to swing by for a visit before we left for the party. The first thing she did was turn on our TV to see what the news had to say about us. Ironically, there was nothing new in the news, so she settled for laughing at all the people on TV trying to identify her. She found it especially funny when they thought we might be romantically involved. We had inadvertently become a power couple in the eyes of the public, which was something Rebecca found hilarious.
“Dude, we’re just friends! I can already see some weirdos writing stories about us on the internet. Honestly, people can’t see any kind of positive relationship without thinking it’s romantic. If I’m going to pine after someone, it’d be a guy who didn’t crack his head on the floor because of me.” She was lying down on our living room couch, voicing her complaints to the ceiling. “Man, these guys have no clue about who I am.”
“Gross, I hope people don’t write stories about us. But yeah, they don’t have a clue, and that’s probably a good thing for everyone. It helps you don’t wear black often, so that outfit was just a one-off.” I took a sip of water while the news team talked about how miraculous only Robert died, which was tough to hear. There were maybe a dozen people that knew about Julio. Even Francine coming up “missing” in their reports was something I tried not to think hard about.
“I’ll have to cover up my scar for a little while. Not too many girls who look like me with one running across their nose. It’ll be like high school all over again.” It looked like she had tried to ignore the comments from the news too. I knew it was still hard for her to handle what happened. “By the way, I had to cut those awful pants off me. Throwing those things away was the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done. I almost used them to start an annual ritual where I get the girls to burn clothes they hate. You should have seen the marks on my hips from how badly they were digging in against my skin. I swear they had cut six-inch grooves into me.”
“I told you that you were being squeezed and those pants weren’t safe,” I reminded her.
She shrugged. “Eh, it was nice to wear something a little different. Would have been better if they fit me. I know for future outfits that I filled out a lot since I was sixteen.”
While the talking heads on our TV kept talking about the “mystery woman” who sat right next to me, I heard a door open and close upstairs. Little footsteps sounded on the stairs when Megan’s tiny frame came into view. I silently braced myself. A small child thundering down the stairs usually meant we were going to get an earful about something.
“Aunt Lizzy, Aunt Lizzy!” Megan raced over to her and climbed up next to her, sliding directly between us both.
“That’s me, what’s up?” Lizzy put both hands beneath the girl's arms and held her in the air.
“I have a big favor to ask. The biggest favor I’ve ever asked someone.” Megan was just about shaking with excitement. “Will you put makeup on me for the birthday party? I want to be pretty like you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, princess.” Lizzy gently set Megan down on the ground in front of her. “Makeup is only for older people. I won’t put any on a girl your age.”
“Please? I won’t ask you for anything ever again.” Megan pushed out her bottom lip in a pout.
“Sorry, sweetie, but I’m going to have to say no. When you’re older, if you still want to learn, we can talk about it then.”
Megan, for as good as she had been since I’ve known her, finally had a situation where she didn’t get her way. In her defense, she had always been behaved and she had never really asked for much, so I never had a time when I had to put my foot down. Given what she had gone through, I wanted to make her life comfortable, but I tried to avoid spoiling her too much. I found it was nearly impossible for me to find a good middle ground.
And her reaction was about as bad as I expected it to be for the first time one of us had to draw a line in the sand with her. Tears welled in her eyes and she clenched her little fists together. For the sweetest, briefest of moments, it was quiet. Then the tantrum came.
“I hate you!” she yelled, running back upstairs, likely to Rebecca who was still in our room.
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“Oh boy,” I muttered. I looked at Lizzy who was frowning. “Hey, it’s your choice and I back you on that. I am curious, though, why’d you tell her no?”
“I wasn’t lying that she’s way too young to start putting on makeup.” Lizzy tilted her head a little while I waited for her to continue. “Okay, say you’re thirteen and you’re seeing an action movie. The male lead is probably handsome, but maybe a little predictable. Most likely white, tall, short brown hair, square jaw, and ripped to the point he’s probably dehydrated and singlehandedly keeping the steroid industry afloat, right?”
I thought back to nearly every action movie I’d seen in ten years and nodded. “Yeah, that all checks the boxes.”
“Now, when you’re thirteen and in the middle of puberty, that probably plants an idea of what a man should look like, especially when you have a bunch of girls fawning over him.” Lizzy poked at my arm. “I don’t know if you had any body issues, so I don’t know if you relate to this, but a lot of boys that age think they need to look like that to be attractive. You’ll have kids start working out beyond what’s healthy and normal to look that good. Even now, you’re not chiseled like that. You just look like a strong guy who keeps in good shape.”
“I wasn’t in love with how I looked growing up,” I admitted. “I was fine with myself, I guess. I wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence in my body. I mostly work out now because Rebecca likes to, and it feels good to be active.”
“And for that, I am truly happy for you. That’s great.” She patted me on the shoulder. “The issue is a lot of kids see adults looking certain ways and think they have to look like that as kids, and it’s disgusting. If they want to make choices on how to look as adults, they can make those decisions with more life experience that Megan obviously doesn't havee.”
“I think I see what you’re getting at.”
“She’s seven. She needs to grow up seeing her natural face. Megs can’t pretend that her face is anything different than it is during formative years like this. Whenever I do someone’s makeup, I always tell them that none of it is needed. No foundation, no primer, no eyeshadow, no lipstick, no anything. I’m at least going to try and drill home that this is all optional and that isn’t what a human being looks like naturally.”
“And you don’t want Megan’s perception of herself to be altered.”
“Bingo. If she spends these formative years trying to hide what she her face looks like, it’s going to cause problems for her in the future.” Lizzy tapped the scar on her nose. “I was lucky that I was in a spot where I could see it was happening to me and I stopped thinking I needed to hide something or look a certain way. It took me a little while to get there, so if I can do anything to make a kid’s road a little easier to travel, I will. I’m able to accept how I look without worrying about any kind of beauty standards, so I just do everything for fun.”
“Got it, thanks for telling me. That all makes sense.” I held out my fist and she bumped it with hers. “Now I have to decide what I’m going to do with her.”
“Look, I’ll help out in special circumstances. If she has a huge pimple and it’s picture day or she’s getting ready for her prom night, I’ll cover it up. That’s a little different than just her thinking she has to look a certain way for strangers.” Lizzy looked over to the staircase. “Here, I’ll go tell her I’ll help put together an outfit for her. I bet she’ll like that.”
I shut the TV off and followed Lizzy up the stairs, thankful for any excuse to not have to see my own face on every major news network. When I opened the door to my room, Rebecca was on the bed, rubbing Megan’s back. Her face was in a pillow and I could barely hear the sounds of her sniffling.
She turned her head to look at us. “I’m mad at her.”
“I know, honey,” I said, sitting next to her on the bed. “You’re already the cutest kid in the world, so we don’t want you to think you have to grow up too fast.”
“But I want to be pretty like Aunt Lizzy.”
“Look at me,” Lizzy said, kneeling by the bed to get on eye level with the little girl. When Megan looked up at her, Lizzy smiled. “If you want to be pretty like me, then you should know I’m not wearing any makeup today. This is just what I look like normally.”
“You’re not?” Megan sat up and wiped her eyes. She squinted like she wasn’t sure if Lizzy was telling her the truth.
“Nope, because I look great without putting anything on my face.” She grabbed Megan’s cheeks between her index fingers and thumbs. “And guess what? You are the cutest kid in the world. You’re going to be prettier than me one day and you won’t need anything to do it, so how about you enjoy being the cutest kid for a little while longer?”
“You mean it?” The faintest hints of a smile were forming at the corners of her mouth.
“I’m no liar. With the boys who will throw themselves at you, you’re going to be causing so much trouble for these two.” When Megan started laughing, I could tell Lizzy knew she had her. “But how about I go through your clothes with you to help pick an outfit? How’s that sound?”
“Yeah, let’s go!” Megan hopped off the bed and raced down the stairs.
“That...was easier than I thought,” I said.
“Kids aren’t stupid. They’re just small and young people.” Despite the credit she gave Megs, Rebecca seemed relieved it was over as quickly as it began.
“Mama bear is right. You know, a lot of kid problems aren’t big deals in the grand scheme of things. It still matters a lot to them. If you at least treat it with some respect and validity, nearly every kid I’ve seen has responded positively. You don’t want them to have adult problems and solutions for everything, but if you can make them feel like it’s a real problem you’re taking seriously, there’s a good chance they’ll like offers like the one I gave her.”
“Well, thanks for saving our skin. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.” I held out a hand and helped pull Lizzy back up to two feet.
“She’s a great kid and kids are already resilient. Just make sure you give her a lot of support because her life has been tough, so it could affect her later.” Lizzy gave Rebecca a quick hug and went to the door. “I’m going to help her get ready. Why don’t you guys go get Ryan so you’re not late?”
“Sounds good, thanks for that.” Rebecca grabbed a light jacket from our closet. “This is kind of fun. Birthday celebrations weren’t exactly a thing we did in my family. When I first heard about one in this time, I didn’t have much of a clue what to expect.”
“Kids’ ones are interesting,” I said, waiting by the bedroom door. “Lots of energy, lots of screaming, sometimes lots of money.”
“I wasn’t sure what to do, so I called Sam’s parents to let them know we’d be coming.” Rebecca blushed. “I, um, asked them about how safe it would be. You know, if there were any pets, weapons, or dangerous games there. While you’ve been doing your hero business, I’ve been talking with Chloe and Ryan’s parents. Since Megan spends so much time with him, I thought it made sense to get to know them a little better. Making sure he’s safe is as important to me as making sure Megan is safe, and I wouldn’t feel right bringing Ryan to a party that be dangerous.”
“I don’t think that’s really a bad thing. We’ve never met these people.” When she was by the door, I took her hand and went down to the living room. “What’d they say?”
“They said it was all safe. No dangerous pets, no guns or anything like that, and the party was outside. There’s a pool that will be monitored at all times since everyone will be around it. Steve, Sam’s dad, will be watching the grill while he cooks.” Rebecca slipped her coat on and grabbed her keys. “They mentioned a bouncy house and a ball pit, but I was too embarrassed to ask them what those were.”
“Those should be fine. Kids play on those all the time. Even I’ve been in a bounce house and came out unscathed.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t think you got any of those scars from something heroic. I think you just had a bunch of ball pit accidents.”
“Being King of the Pit was not a title I gained by idle inaction.” I rubbed the burn scar on my arm for dramatic effect. “Sometimes, you have to bleed for your castle, but I’m a great and noble leader to my people. Sadly, I think it’s time I passed the title to the little girl in the other room.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Fine, but if she comes back with scars like yours, we will be having some words.”