The mid afternoon sun streamed down on the backyard, turning the colours more vibrant and making the makeshift fort in the center of the yard seem like a castle. Screams of delight rose up from inside the tent made of blankets.
A small girl with long brown hair stepped out of the tent and looked around. Her brown eyes sparkled as she danced over to the little garden that was in back of the yard and she began to pick the flowers that grew there. Once she figured that she had a sufficient amount of flowers, the little girl danced back over to the fort.
"Angel!" she called. A boys head peaked out from the doorway. "Yes Mimi?" he asked. "Will you put these in my hair?" Mimi asked. Angel nodded. Mimi sat down in front of him and he began to methodically braid the little rose buds into Mimi's long brown hair.
Another girl stuck her head out the door. "I don't wanna be the mommy anymore," she wined. "Mark won't be a good daddy." Angel and Mimi both turned to glare at Mark. The blond-haired boy pushed his heavy glasses back up his nose before speaking. "Mo's being mean. She won't let me take pictures of her." He whined. "Oh wah," Maureen spat out at him. Angel and Mimi both sighed and shook their heads. Maureen and Mark were always fighting about something pointless.
"Sorry but you're just gonna have to deal with it," Mimi said sounding much older than four. "We all like who we are in the family so you're just going to have to stay being the mommy and the daddy." Angel explained as he went back to braiding Mimi's hair.
Maureen and Mark both heaved exasperated sighs and withdrew into the tent. Angel finnished braiding the flowers into Mimi's curls and they both stood up. Angel grabbed Mimi's hands and they started doing a strange little twirling dance ending with both of them falling on the ground, dizzy and out of breath.
"What are you guys doing?" a small voice inquired. The two friends looked up from the ground to see Joanne standing before them with a box of cookies. "Dancing," Mimi replied. Joanne nodded. "I just came back from work and I got dinner." She held up the box of cookies.
At the mention of food, Angel and Mimi stood up. Five small heads also appeared in the door of the fort. "Cookies?" a boy with shaggy blond hair asked. Joanne nodded. "Yay!" All of the kids rushed for Joanne.
Once the cookies had been distributed evenly, all eight kids sat around munching contentedly. Mark held tight to his red plastic camera and started to take pictures of the other blond boy.
"Not without my guitar!" he screeched. He ducked back in the tent and emerged with a plastic guitar that had pre-recorded sounds. Immediately the little boy went into "rock star" mode and started posing for pictures. "I wanna be in pictures too!" Maureen cried jumped on the guitarist's back. "Ow!" he shrieked, falling to the ground. "Get off of Roger Mo," a fairly large boy said pulling her off with ease.
Roger lay on the ground moaning. "Get up, Roger," the new arrival said. Roger lay on the ground for another moment before remembering that he still had cookies left. He quickly got up and went to finish his snack, the incident forgotten.
"Collins!" Maureen cried jumping on the new arrival's back. Even at an early age, Collins had gone by his surname only. Collins staggered but didn't fall. "Hey Mo," he said before flipping her over his shoulder. Maureen squealed and then started laughing.
The little kids proceeded to play house and had surprisingly few arguments. It was late afternoon when a small voice from over the fence said, "Can I play with you guys?" Everyone in the yard froze and turned around to see who had spoken.
They could see a pair of dark brown eyes and chocolate coloured skin through the slat on the fence but little else.
"Who are you?" Maureen called out.
"Benny," the little boy's voice replied. "I just moved in down the street and I heard you guys playing and I want to play too. Please?"
"Not all of us are guys," Mimi said huffily. Then she gave a little twirl and said, "But you can come and play with us anyway!"
Benny ran around the gate and into the yard. He was almost in the playhouse when a voice called out, "NO! He can't play with us!" Everyone turned to look at Roger. "Why not?" asked Mimi. "Cause…I don't like meeting new people. I want it to be just us forever." Roger replied.
Everyone thought on this for a minute. "It will be just us," Mimi said. "But now Benny can be part of it too!" Roger nodded in consent and Benny joined their group.
The afternoon wore on into evening. Eventually everyone's parents started to call the kids in for dinner and then to go to bed. As everyone left the fort they were talking and laughing and just being kids. Benny had fit into their group and it was like he had been there for forever, and not just a matter of hours.
Everyone was gone. The backyard where they had built the fort in was still. The moonlight flowed down, washing everything in cold silver light. Flowers lay crushed on the ground and there were a few broken cookies scattered around. The playhouse stood ready for the eight kids that, come morning, would be back ready to jump back into their game and have fun.