Broken.
"Mummy! Look what happened!" yelled a nine year old Nicholas with a broken picture frame in his tiny hands.
"Oh baby what happened here?" said Denise with worry in her voice.
"It fell off the wall; I didn't mean for it to, I'm sorry…." Nick whispered with his head hung low.
"Don't worry honey, we can fix it, it'll be all better"
Nick's head shot up, "Really?" he said with hope in his voice.
"Of course dear, why do you sound so shocked?"
"Because we have a lot of broken things that we can't fix"
Denise was quite taken aback by Nicks answer; he had never acknowledged the family as broken before.
Denise thought about her answer before she replied, "Well what's broken Nicholas?"
"Well, there's Kev, he's never home anymore mum and when he is, he always smells like the cabinet next to the fridge mum, with all the bottles in it, you know?"
"I know dear, we're helping him, he's still so young" Denise said on the verge of tears.
"And what about Andy mummy? He still gets those images in his head mum, um, hal…halluca…"
"Hallucinations honey?"
Nick nodded, "and he is always scared of me mum and he also gets all his words mixed up, I don't like it..." he was starting to get upset.
Denise cuddled her son to her chest, "we are broken, but these things can be fixed eventually, we just need to be strong"
"Can everyone be fixed mum?"
"No, no they can't dear"
"Is everyone broken?"
It took a while for Denise to register this, is everyone broken? Ever since her youngest son had died, I guess a little bit of her was broken too.
"I guess you could say that Nick, everyone has had heartbreak before, so I guess they are broken in a way"
"I want to fix them!" Nick replied cheerfully.
"Oh dear, you can't fix everyone" Denise said sadly.
"But can't you mum? Mummy's can do anything can't they? Like superman…"
Denise sighed, "We're like a puzzle baby, and if we try to put things back together piece by piece we will eventually get a beautiful picture"
"So we're a puzzle mum?" Nick was slightly confused.
"With lots and lots of pieces"
Nick understood now, "how do we put these pieces together?'
"We choose the smallest pieces and see how we can fit them together"
"Like me, Andy and Kevin mum?'
Denise smiled and nodded, "Yes, we step by step identify and see the problem then we fix it"
"Okay mum, ill try my best….how do I start?"
"Going and sitting and talking to Kevin and Andy, they need you right now honey"
"Okay mum" Nick smiled.
"Just to let you know dear, you may not be able to fix them, but you can definitely show them one thing"
"Whats that mummy?"
"Love."
Nick smiled before running off to find his brothers.