Attachment Strings by Chris T. Kat Page B

very well ignore his own ultimatum.”
    “I’m always thinking of Sean. Always .” His voice had a bitter edge to it.
    So he wasn’t always a happy camper when it came to being a single parent to a disabled child. Nice to see he was only human too.
    I caught him by his shoulders when he squeezed past me. We locked eyes. I should have said something meaningful, but I couldn’t think of anything. Alex held my gaze, waiting for me to speak up. When I stayed silent, he shrugged my hands off and mumbled, “I’d better brush my teeth.”
    “You do that.”
    I let him go and trailed after him. He made a quick detour to the living room, where he told Sean I was going to stay with them for the night. The boy answered him in his usual way of communication. I was astonished how Alex could interpret what he was saying. To me it sounded like… nothing I’d encountered before. During their little chitchat, Alex glanced at me. His voice became more and more hushed until he cut Sean off with a firm, “That’s enough.”
    The boy’s eyes filled with tears immediately but to my surprise Alex didn’t waver. He quickly excused himself and I had no other choice than to sit down on the sofa. I chose the corner of the sofa furthest away from the almost crying Sean. He chirped, a sad type of chirp, then hefted his eyes back on the screen in front of him. I let out a breath and rolled my shoulders to ease some of the tension. Children always made me feel inadequate. Sean even more so because he was different in many ways. The prospect of having some kind of conversation upset me the most. Gratefulness filled me when he didn’t pursue talking to me.
    When Alex came back, I interpreted Sean’s high-pitched shrieks as protest. I wondered what his protest was directed at. Questioningly, I raised an eyebrow at Alex, who sighed and wearily raked his fingers through his hair. “It’s Sean’s bedtime. As you can hear he’s not too fond of it.”
    Sean’s shrieks rose in intensity, causing me to grit my teeth. “It’s unmistakable.”
    Alex’s eyes blazed up in anger. I stared at him, baffled. What had I said this time? I seemed to have a knack for saying the wrong thing. Not a really new revelation, yet it irked me to upset Alex. Especially when I didn’t have a clue about what I had said exactly to rile him up. I foresaw a highly terse and uncomfortable evening and night.
    Alex clicked off the TV, which earned him a furious-sounding cry. Sean certainly had a big repertoire of various sounds and noises to demonstrate his feelings. I watched Alex wrestle Sean into his arms and carry him out of the living room. He looked exhausted and sounded grim when he admonished his little brother. “Knock it off, Sean. It’s late, we have to get you into your jammies and do some of your exercises. You know that . It’s the same routine every night.”
    Sean’s answering chirp was more subdued. “Come on, baby. We both had a long and exhausting day, we’re both tired. Don’t make a fuss, please .”
    The bathroom door clicked shut. I listened to them talking and chirping, sometimes interrupted by sounds of water running. They emerged from the bathroom about fifteen minutes later. Sean saw me standing at the living-room window and whistled. Alex turned to me with an unreadable expression on his face. “He wishes you a good night.”
    “Oh, um, thanks. Same to you.”
    I followed them into the small hallway because I needed to use the facilities. Sean’s head rested on Alex’s shoulders and he smiled at me before they vanished into his room. I shook my head. What a strange family. Did this even count as a family? There were only two of them. A small voice inside my head sweetly asked me if it wouldn’t be nice to belong to this family.
    I almost banged into the bathroom door.

Chapter 12

     
     
    W ITH great effort, I closed the door instead of slamming it. I loathed this small voice of mine, which always came up with the most unsuitable