"Spo Daddy!" Arsenio said while sitting on Adriana's lap.
At the end of her knees was a large notepad and she was writing on it with a black marker. It was full of words Arsenio wanted to see written out. Alfred had been entertaining him this way for many days and he was learning to read from it.
"Daddy," she said and began to write. "Is spelled D-A-D-D-Y."
"Spo Daddy Iyohyouu!" Arsenio said. "Pees!"
Adriana laughed. "So you want to write your Dad a letter, then?"
Arsenio nodded and smiled.
"Okay," Adriana said and started on a fresh, new sheet of paper that wasn't covered in random words. "What shall I write, my dear?"
"Uhhh..." Arsenio said, while thinking.
It was so cute, Adriana started to laugh again.
"Daddy," Arsenio said.
"D-A-D-D-Y," Adriana wrote neatly.
"Iyohyouu lot!" Arsenio said, trying to speak very clearly.
"I...love...you...a lot," Adriana said as she wrote the sentence.
"Bess Daddy!" Arsenio said.
"And...you...are...the...best," Adriana wrote. "Best Daddy."
"Annn..." Arsenio said, thinking again. "Daddy bess hok!"
"Hug?" Adriana asked.
Arsenio nodded. "Hok."
"And...you..." Adriana kept writing. "Give...the...best...hugs."
"Ya!" Arsenio said.
"Anything else?" she asked.
"Bye!" Arsenio said conclusively.
"We'll write...Love...Arsenio," she said and finished the letter. "I'm sure he'll love it."
Arsenio smiled and Adriana kissed him on the cheek.
"So, your Daddy gives better hugs than me?" Adriana asked.
"Mommy bess keee!" Arsenio said and kissed her back on the cheek.
"Awww," Adriana said. "You too little one. So now what would you like to do?"
"Watch Chowee!" Arsenio said.
"Oh...I don't know what that is...I'll have to ask Alfred when he comes back in," Adriana said. "I'm sure we can find something to watch though."
Arsenio crawled off of Adriana's lap and she went over to the TV to turn it on and grabbed the remote. The news was on.
The shocking images of a very malnourished little boy came up on the screen. His legs had no fat or muscle and he sat staring listlessly as the reporter spoke.
"Madagascar's drought crisis has led to widespread famine-" she said and Adriana quickly changed the channel as a famished little girl showed up on the screen.
Slowly she turned to Arsenio and he turned to her.
"Mommy..." he said and reached forward to her.
She picked him up and held him in her arms for a few seconds and then he pulled back a bit to look up at her.
"Famey?" he asked her.
She didn't want to explain it. He was only a year old. But he looked at her intently and with such a questioning look in his eyes, she didn't know what to say.
"Famine.." Adriana said. "Means..there's not much food."
Adriana could see it was the first time he had ever even considered the possibility of there not being food. She watched his expression change to slowly, ruminating, thinking, contemplating. He realized they looked the way they did because of lack of food. He kept thinking about it, until gradually he began to cry.
"Shhh..." she said and held him close. "It's okay...it's alright...you'll always have food, I promise."
He pulled back again and pointed to the TV which Adriana had flipped to a random channel showing a golf tournament.
"You're...worried about those kids?" Adriana asked and Arsenio nodded.
"No...foo..." Arsenio said. "We keefoo? We hafoo lot!"
"You want to give them food?" Adriana asked. She knew it was what he was asking. Because he was right, they had a lot.
"Ya!" he said.
"Well..." Adriana said. "They live very far away, but...I think maybe your Daddy and I can help them. I'll ask your Daddy about it later."
Somehow, the mention of his father seemed to calm Arsenio down tremendously. He knew his father could do anything.
"Tayoo...Mommy," Arsenio said and gave her a hug.
.
.
.
"What time does the plane land again?" Bruce asked Adriana that evening.
"3:30," Adriana told Bruce.
"Got it," he said.
"Harri's really excited to see Wayne Manor," Adriana said and sat on the edge of the bed. She was already dressed for sleep.
"Hard to believe everything's been completely rebuilt and it's ready for entertaining again," Bruce said, combing his damp hair. "I think the dinner party will go great."
Adriana nodded. "Yes."
Bruce turned to her and smiled. "Everything alright?"
"It's about Arsenio," Adriana said. "Everything's fine..It's just something's got me thinking a lot..remembering a lot."
"What happened?" he asked and sat beside her.
"Something came up on the TV that I didn't mean for him to see," she said. "It upset him."
"Oh..." Bruce said. "I noticed his mood was a bit down after dinner but I though perhaps he's just tired."
"I'm sure it was that too.." she said. "Anyways, there was a news report about famine overseas. He understood it and started crying."
"Oh..." Bruce said.
"I told him I would ask you about it," she said. "He wants to help them."
"Philanthropist at almost 13 months of age," Bruce smiled. "My boy."
Adriana gave him a weak smile and looked down.
"We'll assist," Bruce promised. "What country was it?"
"Somewhere in Africa.." she said, trying to remember after turning the channel so quickly. "Madagascar I think."
"Ah.." Bruce nodded. "There are drought conditions there at the moment."
"Yeah," Adriana said. "I heard her mention drought. The kids were starved. Arsenio knows we have plenty of food and wanted us to give them some."
"He's a compassionate little boy," Bruce said.
"Yes," Adriana agreed.
"I'll see what I can do," Bruce said.
"Thank you," Adriana said and kissed him.
He then pulled out his phone. Adriana felt herself daydreaming and remembering so much.
"Done," he said.
"Done?" she asked. "That's it?"
"Well," he said. "There's a budget, there's an assignment, and it will be handled by the people best suited for it."
"That was fast," she said.
"Unfortunately I can't control a drought but we'll help as many people as we can," Bruce told her.
"You're amazing," she said and gave him a hug.
"You still seem a bit...down in the dumps," he noticed.
"It's nothing I was just..." she sighed. "Remembering being a kid. I've always seen my parents memories and there were so many instances like this. I just hoped Arsenio would be spared. Even though he can't read minds...his gift allows him to understand things so much sooner."
"I see," Bruce said, understanding.
"It...ruined my childhood," she said. "It felt like I never even had one. The world was always so dark and full of...horrible things."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Bruce asked and rubbed her back.
She shrugged.
"My parents did everything they could," Adriana said. "The best times were...when we went on cruises. It was so quiet...out in the middle of the ocean, only a few people around. And we'd go on luxury cruises..most of the people on them had great lives, not too many traumatic memories...but we weren't rich so we only were able to do it like...once every five years."
"It must have been difficult," Bruce said. "Having to carry the traumas of everyone around you as a child."
"Yes..." Adriana said. "I...actually saw famine too."
"Did you?" Bruce asked.
"Yes.." Adriana told him. "We visited Africa a lot when I was young. My mother's family in Somalia. Sometimes we went to Egypt too. And we went to Spain all the time. My parents loved to travel."
"Famine must have been difficult to be around," Bruce said.
Adriana nodded.
"We stayed in Somalia for a whole summer once...in the early 90's," Adriana said.
"Famine..and civil war," Bruce said, knowing the history. "And your parents brought you there?"
"Believe it or not..." she said. "It wasn't as bad as being in a first world city. We were in a pretty remote village so there weren't too many people around. No running water and almost no electricity but it was pretty quiet."
Bruce nodded. "I've never been to Somalia," he said. "I've been around the Horn of Africa many times though on boats."
"It's..an interesting place," Adriana said. "It feels familiar to me, since I've been there so many times. You know I remember Harri and I made friend with many of the local kids..."
"Oh?" Bruce asked.
"They always thought I was different," Adriana laughed.
"Because of your gift?" he asked.
"Well...I rarely shared that," Adriana said. "But I guess I was quiet and not as playful as my sister. Also, I looked different. They would refer to me as 'white girl'. No harm was meant by it, and they weren't trying to be offensive, its just the way the nickname they had for me translated."
"I see," Bruce said. "Did that bother you?"
"No," she shrugged. "Not really. I had other things bothering me. I wouldn't see it often but every now and then...memories of the war, rebels, villages being destroyed..no, I didn't care much about being called 'white girl'. I knew what I looked like. I think it probably bothered Harri more."
"Oh?" Bruce asked.
"Whenever they would call me that she'd just say, 'she's Somali too!'" Adriana laughed. "She did that for a few weeks and just gave up when she realized they weren't going to stop. It was different in Egypt and Spain though, no one ever said anything."
"If you don't mind me saying," Bruce said. "Your appearance is ambiguous but I could tell at least in general what your ancestry was when I first met you. You're a stunning woman."
"I don't mind," Adriana laughed. "Thanks. I think that's because...you've traveled a lot, you've been around the world and to many different countries you've seen a lot of people. Most of the time the only people that are able to tell are Black people. I mean American Black people...they almost always can tell for certain."
Adriana sighed. "And now we've changed into talking about a whole different subject."
"I don't mind at all," Bruce said.
"So...Madagascar," she said. "We're really going to help. I'm so happy."
"Yes," he said. "I've budgeted $8 million per month for the next 3 months. We'll see if we need to increase it after that."
"You have a lot of charities," Adriana said.
"That I do," he said. "And I get a lot of people requesting things for charitable reasons. But of course, if it's you requesting, it will be done."
"You're the best," she said and gave him a kiss and stood up to walk around the bed to get in and lay down.
"You know.." Bruce said, observing how she was walking. "Making a woman walk like that is a lot nicer in theory."
Adriana laughed as she got into bed.
"It's fading, I'm fine," she said.
"I love you," he said to her.
"I love you too," she replied.