“Eew!” said the girls.

“Adam, stand up,” said Miss Barbara.

Adam panted.

“Adam, stand up.”

He stood up.

“Come with me.”

The girls giggled.

As Miss Barbara walked him to the other side of the day care center, she said, “Now, I don’t know what it’s like being an only child, but a dog is not the same thing as a sibling. Do you understand? You can’t play the doggie and say you’re someone’s sister, it makes you look disturbed. Do you understand? You might not ever understand if you never have a sibling, but that is a sacred bond and a bond that cannot be shared with an animal. It’s perverse.”

She sat him down at a table and put a coloring book in front of him. “Now I want you to color these pictures in and do a good job.”

When she left, he started to mumble, “Roi ruff roo,” under his breath. “Roi ruff roo.”

The image Adam was asked to color was an Easter bunny. The bunny was holding a basket out to him. The basket had eggs in it. The bunny had no background, but he was wearing a waistcoat. Adam picked up a crayon at random and started rubbing it against the paper. It was soothing.

“Roi ruff roo,” he whispered, not to the bunny, and not to his family. His family. He looked up at them across the day care center. He had been abandoned by his family for asking for a higher position. Now they were eating their imaginary food and explaining the events of their imaginary days. Adam continued coloring while he looked at  them.

Eventually, they noticed. His sister, Emma, widened her eyes at him and thrust her head forward a few times. A challenge to fight. He sighed and put his cheek in his hand. Sigh. He looked back down at his coloring job of the Easter bunny. “I don’t love you bunny, no offense,” he said.

Barb was walking around the room with her arms crossed, surveying all that was hers. All of these children learning about life and social systems and appropriate behavior. Pretty much learning about how things are, and learning it under her gentle guidance. A small boy, Louie, ran past her and she said, “Slow down, Louie.” She smiled. So simple. It was all so simple. Separate the ones who are fighting, give light reprimands, subtle suggestions, firm suggestions. So simple.

MEANWHILE, JILLIAN KEPT getting calls on her cell phone from the same number. She didn’t recognize the number and it made her nervous. She reached for a Pop-Tart and waited for Megan to go to the bathroom, then she checked her voicemail. It was the government, wanting to know when she’d schedule her court date, pay her fine, and bail her car out of the impound.

Megan looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She was a dick. Looking at herself there in the mirror, she knew she was a dick. Only a real dick would have such a lopsided face.