After the Move

Chapter 03 [https://www.rellawings.com/superluminal/chapternum/chaphead_3.jpg]

Despite being an awkward boy who had lost much of his joyous and irrepressible energy, by spending time with his cousin and with much nurturing, Leo gradually showed signs of improvement.

It wasn’t easy dealing with the child’s sweaty nightmares, regular bed wetting, emotionally charged mood swings or the occasional loss of appetite he experienced, but they found a way through thanks to plenty of patience and love.

Goonie acknowledged she needed help and found a knowledgeable therapist to help Leo deal with his feelings. Despite the lady therapist’s gentleness and how much it helped him, Leo still couldn’t help dreading these weekly visits. No one else at his school needed to see a therapist like he did, and it made him think something was wrong with him.

Even though he never quite returned to being the same innocent apple of his mother’s eye, Leo gradually found some enthusiasm again.

Quinn loved her new little brother, but the novelty wore off in time and she started seeking more personal space, which she usually found upstairs in her room with the door shut.

One night, drawn by the strange sounds coming from within, Leo crept into Quinn’s bedroom with a serious expression. When his eyes fell upon her, Leo became starry-eyed. The blonde girl sat on her bed with a strange contraption on her lap. Colors flashed on it as though she was playing one of those memory game machines he’d seen shown off at school, but the lights flashed after she pressed them rather than before.

It wasn’t just that it was peculiar, either. Some weird music came out from the thing the whole time and it changed with each pressing of a button. Neither did Quinn look like the happy-go-lucky goof Leo normally saw. She was intently focused, totally lost in the music she was playing.

Leo had heard her full name was Quinzel Rosemary Ramses, a lovely name, but never thought about ever calling her all that. Apparently, nobody else did either.

It was a rare thing, but when sufficiently upset, Goonie would set Quinn down.

In short, his cousin was just ‘Quinn’ to him and everyone else.

Quinn was the type of person who had to do everything that looked interesting and frequently did all of those things simultaneously in the name of saving time. Indeed, she didn’t like to waste any time in her exploration whether it was outdoor activities like basketball, soccer or rollerblading with friends, after-school things like art class, drama or the gaming club she attended. Quinn was always doing ten different things all at once.

Auntie Goonie had once remarked about her daughter’s behavior, saying that Quinn was taste testing everything life offered like a budding gourmet.

Whatever the motivation, Leo thought Quinn was the most amazing person in the entire world aside from her superhero role models like Mistral, who he’d never forgotten even in his deepest moments of depression. At the moment, Quinn seemed more amazing, perhaps more talented than those gifted with superpowers. Leo’s cousin and adoptive sibling knew many people and did even more things, always doing whatever she wanted and all at her own pace.

Pleased that he was closer to her than anyone else, Leo thought maybe it was because despite knowing so many people and having so many interests, Quinn didn’t seem to have many super close friends or stuck with any one activity long enough to accumulate them in those days of experimentation.

Leo didn’t care which of these was the true cause, it just meant that he got his amazing cousin all to himself.

That said, things had changed a little once Quinn started taking after-school music classes. Having quickly established the fact that she was naturally good at expressing herself through music, Quinn never really liked the forced rigor one had to follow to play with other people in a class. Her style was more free-style, more jazzy than that. She would have literally marched to her own beat if she’d ever felt like joining Band.

Neither the recorder, clarinet, guitar, trumpet nor any of the many other instruments she’d tried picking up for a bit could keep her interest for long before she’d move onto something more novel. She was gifted enough to fairly quickly pick up the basics about everything she tried, but that didn’t mean she truly enjoyed those things. And so, Quinn was breezily trying things out like usual until she got to the drums and then the keyboard.

Quinn really, really, reeeeally liked the drums and loved the keyboard, but what she loved even more was being able to make the school’s electric keyboard change the sounds she would put out on the fly. She’d start out playing on a piano, then electronically switch over to the somber and deeper notes that only an organ could make, then over to a harpsichord, jamming with these eldritch sounds and then back to whatever else she thought best fit next.

One of her music class friends also enjoyed electronic instruments like her and, through this connection, Quinn learned more about where her mother had gotten these instruments for her and explored all available options on her own terms. She visited the music stores in the area that sold keyboards, synths, keytars and all kinds of other crazy stuff she hadn’t known existed until she laid eyes on them.

Ever since then, Quinn became obsessed like Leo had never seen. She’d even started walking the neighbors’ pets, watering their plants or running extra errands for Goonie so she could make money to save up and get something shiny called a ‘mixing board’ and roped Leo into going with her to the store whenever Goonie permitted it.

Leo had to wonder if Goonie’s great cooking might help Quinn chase her dream since it involved mixing, a subject Quinn would mutter about almost endlessly.

Anyhow, early that day Quinn had gone to the store to pick up an order she’d placed, but all she came back with was some weird blinky light-box thing, the thing that straddled her lap now. Leo was skeptical and interested when he saw the box it came in. His curiosity was impossible to contain when the curious notes started filling the upstairs hallway. He was using the bathroom next door and had to get even closer and so he crept into her room. Now that he was hearing it in action, up close, it deeply fascinated Leo.

Having been so deeply focused, Quinn hadn’t noticed her cousin’s entry or his timid approach. Leo tilted his head, listening, not saying a word. Utterly engrossed.

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Much to Leo’s continued amazement, Quinn had recently taken to dyeing her hair. Leo couldn’t help but wonder how his hair would look if it was pink like hers was now. His mouth spread in an enthusiastic grin at the thought and the groove his cousin was cutting. At that age, she had also started regularly wearing large goggles on her head wherever outside the home and sometimes inside. The goggles combined with her baggy windbreaker and comfy-looking miniskirt signaled the eccentric fashionista she was becoming. Because she didn’t have her goggles on at the moment, her mid-length hair swung freely as her fingers continued to dance on the pad.

“WOW! WHAT’S THAT THING CALLED!?” Leo couldn’t contain his exuberance any longer and exclaimed. He looked into Quinn’s face, who had just then noticed Leo’s presence. She blinked and smiled tolerantly, not answering. Her beat faltered momentarily, but she doubled her efforts now that she had a captive audience. Leo’s head moved from side to side and the smile on his face shone more genuine than it had for months.

Once she got the melody out of her system, Quinn was so happy, content to have such a good little brother, she impulsively ran to her mother downstairs. It had become an impromptu concert that had left her with a high and even Leo was still smiling, bemused. As she exploded into the kitchen with Leo following her like a duckling, Quinn’s tone was enthusiastic as he exclaimed, “Mama! I love Leo!”

It annoyed her in part that Leo had barged into her room, but she was full of nothing but goodwill and love for him just for sitting quietly and listening so raptly, so she let it slide.

Her mother smiled warmly, nodding. She was more than surprised to hear Quinn say it after having cooled off over the last year or two once the novelty of having a sibling wore off.

Quinn thumbed her lips and looked down at her little brother, who was clinging to her with an expression that nearly conveyed worship. She thought about Leo’s place in the household, thinking it was still too tentative, too temporary as though it might mean that he wasn’t there for good, not that her mother would ever do that to Leo, particularly after saving his life and adopting him.

With a firm nod to herself, Quinn said, “Leo’s had to sleep on the sofa for too long… isn’t there something else we can do for him?”

Goonie’s warm smile faded slightly and her expression soon turned troubled. The house had only two bedrooms and while there was another room that could become another bedroom; it didn’t have a closet because it was just an office, one that housed the family computer. There was the worry of where to put the computer if that was done, but something truly needed to be done. Sometimes Leo would sleep with her when he had a hard time sleeping, or he became restless, but as he grew, this wouldn’t be the best thing for him long term. His sleeping was showing improvement, and she thought soon he wouldn’t need to cling to her at night.

Quinn eyed Leo with an indecipherable expression and a wetting of her lips. Leo stuck himself to her leg like a barnacle and hadn’t yet responded to what they were saying, since he was still coming down from being moved by her music. She could tell. To have had this kind of profound effect on her little sibling, Quinn could not help smiling proudly. It really had been an amazing performance, a magical moment that she hoped she could reproduce in the future. Her pride wasn’t purely because of being able to play bewitching music. It was also thanks to being a big sister, and she saw the real meaning of it now.

When she thought it over, even though Leo had intruded on her privacy, when he was clinging to her, crying on her lap or the times when he felt agitated, which were more frequent than infrequent, all the good times and bad equally considered, she decided that ever since he’d joined their family, she’d been happier. Now her desire to be a very good elder sibling recharged, just as she felt when they’d rescued him from that old dress chest that belonged to her Grandma before her aunt Yvette.

What she was contemplating doing totally had nothing at all to do with him being her first fan. Could she help want to dote on him extra for that? Nope, not at all.

“Mama!” Quinn decided, and having done so, she looked up to her waiting mother to announce, “I’m giving Leo my bedroom.” At that moment, she scooped Leo up into her arms and gave him a firm hug. She looked into her cousin’s eyes and he looked at her with amazement as the mist of confusion parted to light up his eyes. The reverie he was in had finally passed. Now he knew what was going on around him.

“Are you sure?” Goonie was blown away by her daughter’s surprising generosity. “Aren’t you being impulsive here? Where would you go except for the office? You won’t have a closet if you move there, and he’s a boy. He doesn’t need a closet.”

Still psyched, Quinn said, “I know all that—I don’t mind if we put my stuff on the shelf there or something. I’ll figure it out, I promise. I know I’m a little crazy and I’m just doing whatever pops into my head, y’know—but I think this is right! He won’t be a part of the family while he’s crashing on our couch, right? I don’t want him to have a makeshift room.” Quinn looked into her mother’s eyes, eliciting laughter and a nod.

“You’re so right, Quinn. I-” Laguna’s breath caught. “I can’t believe my child is such an amazing person. You’re my little hero.”

Quinn puffed her cheeks and straightened her posture in a show of pride. Her mouth eventually spread into a gleeful grin and she looked down at Leo, who still did not know what was going on, even though he was now aware. His expression expressed wondering and puzzlement.

Goonie swept both of her children into her arms to clasp them to her middle. “We’ll get started as soon as the workday is over. We’ll hire someone to move your bed, and we’ll see about getting you one too, Leo.”

“It’s fine, Mama,” Quinn said. “I always loved crashing on that oldish comfy couch in the office, anyway. That’ll be good enough for me.” Quinn nodded.

“Y-you’re gonna sleep on a couch instead of me?” Leo asked. The newer living room sofa was where he slept ever since, but now that he thought about it, he’d seen his cousin taking naps on it and the office sofa more frequently lately. Only the details had yet to be hashed out, but Leo knew one thing. This was a strange and magical moment.

“You’re giving up a really nice bed—are you sure, Quinn?” Goonie asked, thinking back on how she’d spoiled her by splurging on it. The bed had a frame that was made from brass that shone like a mirror after a good polishing.

Goonie set the two down and Quinn nodded, saying, “I’m sure, Mama. But he can’t have my clothes! They wouldn’t fit Leo!” She leaned down to pinch little Leo’s cheek.

Leo pouted and squirmed. “N-no——thatsh hurts!” He glared fiercely. “B-but—Your clothesh are sho cute, Cousin!”

Goonie blinked.

“I know! I’m a trendsetter!” Quinn said proudly. “But you’re still a little squirt. My clothes wouldn’t fit you—besides, you’re a boy. You know—hey, wait, call me sister! I know I’m really your cousin, but you’re like my little brother, right?”

Leo gulped and chewed his lip, thinking it over. He’d always wanted a sibling too, but things he still didn’t understand happened and he wondered why Mama wasn’t back yet, but even more why Daddy had turned so mean. And where did he go to?

After a moment of wrestling with the concept, Leo tried the word, “S-sister—" His eyes had been growing dewy, and he gulped after uttering the word. A warm feeling spread inside him as tears continued to well up in the corners of his eyes. He’d always been alone, but just saying the word seemed to help fill the vacancy in his heart.

Having pondered the meaning of the warring expressions of her little nephew as he worked himself up to it and called Quinn his sister, Goonie asked, “Are you okay, Leo? Are you happy with us?”

Leo’s eyes cleared and focused as he quickly nodded his head, sending droplets of tears flying as he declared, “I am! I’m super happy! It’s so warm and bright here with my Auntie Goonie and my—my sister——are so amazing!” His high-pitched voice squealed.

Quinn met Goonie’s gaze and giggled as she made a further suggestion, “You know, he should call you Mama too.”

“No,” Goonie said firmly. “I-I don’t mean that I don’t want to be his mother, but isn’t that disrespectful to my sister, your aunt?”

“Oh, crap—that’s right—" Quinn eyed Leo, chewing her lip.

As they looked into each other’s eyes, Goonie and Quinn thought about Leo’s past and each privately dreaded the moment they’d have to explain to Leo that his mother was dead, gone forever and why his abusive father would never show his face before their family ever again.

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