"Hey, you still figuring out what he's saying?" William entered Trevor's room, bringing a strawberry with him and a knife. Just to see if the bugs were hungry and he could cut it in small pieces for them. The younger child nodded
"Dim is very smart, he still has to understand a couple letters, but i'm helping him"
His pinky finger tip was slowly brushing against the blue beetle's head, very gently, not to hurt him.
"What did he say?"
Trevor showed a paper he wrote with every sentence Dim had made, with missing letters there and there, William took the paper and read it.
"Ok... let's see if i can help"
William took a pencil and asked Dim to nod or shake heads while he read the paper.
"You meant Black here? With an L?"
The beetle was getting proud of himself about getting the boys to cooperate to understand him. He also learned himself some more words and letters by the time they spent here, Roll understood very few but he had the feelings they were making progress in reciprocal communications.
After what seemed a very long time, William abd Trevor had finished filling in the letters in the blank spaces, so they could finally read it:
"Name's Dim. Little friend is Roll.
We come from City under giant metal thing in the fields, but we don't live there.
We are circus
Wait, Bug circus?"
The two step brothers looked at themselves, really puzzled but sharing a little excitement about the discovery of a secret insect society under the truck in the fields. Who could have known?
"Our boss is PT, he's flea. Not exactly very nice bug...
Rest of others are good. Slim is stick bug, Francis is ladybug, but he's guy, no call him lady. Heimlich is caterpillar, they are clowns.
Gypsy is moth and married to Manny, mantis, they do magic tricks.
Roll has twin, Tuck, they do acrobatics on trapeze.
Dim act like beast, but no bad. No hurt.
Rosie is spider, black widow. She taught everything and always took care"
Trevor's eyes were sparkling with interest, bugs were like people under that truck, it blew the stepbrother's mind off.
William believed anything right now, after he witnessed a beetle using the alphabet? He might as well believe that there was a city made out of things people threw away in which bugs lived.
"So, basically you're a family with different members you built all together. Wow"
Dim blinked when he heard the word family, he thought about it. Family was a group of bugs, or people too, in their case, bonded by love and who cared about each other.
Yet, Rosie said he was a burden... did she intended that? Could have been that maybe he misunderstood?
"Hey" William put a bottle cap with very tiny strawberry pieces inside for him and Roll to eat, they hadn't ate strawberries in months, so they were more than happy of that treat.
"Good, seems they like it"
He re read the message a couple times, having a stream of thoughts about the fact that a bunch of bugs had a more solid bond than their own family...
He still felt bad about a stranger woman and her child coming into his and his dad's lives so suddenly, also spending summer together... But Trevor was a younger child that didn't have anything to do with the whole situation.
"Trevor, wanna let them eat and rest while we go in my room to... I don't know, whatever we agree?"
The younger child blinked in surprise, William never allowed him in his room before, he hesitantly asked "Really?" and only followed his step brother when he said yes.
The beetle looked at the two step brothers going together and thought to himself that he was inadvertently helping two step brothers bond. Talking about achievement. And he was only a small insect compared to those giants.
Roll clapped his little hands, grasping they weren't on bad terms as before"Friends now?"
"Yeah. A start"
He retreated into the box, thinking a little about what was happening around him. That he brought two kids from different families together...
Different people, bonding as family...
Downstairs, Tuck was grumbling and swearing in his language while climbing the never-ending carpet on the stairs. He stopped every two steps to catch breath because it was exhausting. But his brother was up there, his friend was there, he had to continue. One thread at a time...
If only he could borrow a lift from someone.
Of course.
He could just wait for the cat or the people to step up.
He waited a solid ten minutes before the female human went up. Tuck was ready, he curled up in a ball and sprinted towards the colossal creature, hanging on the clothes' fabric. Snickering to himself, he waited until she was on the upper floor. There were four rooms...
Did he have to check them all?
Of course...
He prepared to have his throat sore for all the screaming he was going to do, but to find his friend and brother, he would climb a whole oak tree and more.