Warning for miscarriage from the eyes of a toddler.
Part One: The Boy and the Ghost
Taichi is almost four.
He touches everything he can. He falls over a lot. He loves clouds and stars. He loves to wake up early for soccer.
His mother is getting round.
He doesn't know why that's good, because she's also sick sometimes, but his father says that that is okay, and Taichi agrees because it must be okay if his daddy says so.
Then, some time later, his parents say he will have a little sibling.
It must be good, because his parents are happy, but he's not sure if he wants there to be little things around. He is supposed to be the littlest thing here, except for Miko the kitten.
But it might be okay. Mommy and daddy think everything is okay. They must be right.
It takes some work, and a lot of squinting, but Taichi finds out what a sibling is, what a little one is.
That makes him happy. Because there being a new little one means he will be the bigger one, and to be the bigger one means he will be able to do many more things. That sounds fine to him.
His mother is getting rounder. It seems like it's creeping up very fast, but he is four now and that apparently is not so much time at all.
When he asks what his sibling looks like, mommy says they are an alien and hard to explain.
Aren't aliens bad?
Taichi is four and a quarter, for real.
Everything seems okay.
Miko is bigger. Too big. She won't stay on his head anymore. Though she actually hates his head apparently.
His parents have started doing things with money, and using smelly markers that make his nose twitch. He goes outside to play and they're fine with it. He is fine.
He comes home and his home is dark. Something is scribbled, something he can't really read. He takes a guess, because his mother's roundness has started slowing down. The sibling must be happening.
There's a sandwich for him under plastic wrap. He waits to eat it and watch tv.
He falls asleep with it uneaten and wakes up for it. They still are not home by the time he really goes to bed.
There is no sibling.
Taichi doesn't ask why. One would think he would, but things are not okay. When they are okay, maybe he will ask, but the sibling went with the roundness so something bad must have happened.
They are not okay.
He feels like he's being watched sometimes. If he turns and looks at it, he'll get in trouble. Nothing's there. Though saying that makes his mom cry.
Taichi goes to stay with his grandpa.
While he's there, he's being watched. He says so because it's safer here.
Grandpa gives him his goggles to protect him.
They do the opposite. He sees her.
The ghost looks like a tiny version of his mom.
She doesn't talk much but maybe it's because she's tiny. Maybe it's because she's so young. Maybe she doesn't know how.
So he talks to her, for a while. A while turns into any free day, and there aren't many.
Her name, she tells him when she can talk, is Hikari.
He can't talk to her after that for a while. For some reason, it hurts.
It doesn't last. She's company and noise in a house that is trying to forget sound. So he clings to it, even when his parents start to worry. They have nothing to worry about. Really!
A/N: This is a little four chapter thingy that came to me the other night because I don't think I torture Taichi enough. Enjoy!
Challenges: Ultimate Sleuth Red Quest 1, and Diversity Writing E15, write a fic with no dialogue