There was a tree indoors.

That wasn't normal. These things were outside, Touichirou remembered. Outside was on the other side of the door and inside was on this side of the door. He also knew that there were inside things and outside things. Trees and grass and skies were for outside, mother always pointed them out when they took their walk. Toys, television, and rooms were for inside. Father was for outside too, while mother was for both.

So, yes, this was very strange.

"Look baby, green. Gr-een." Said mother as she held a shiny ball up to his face. He reached his hand out to it but mother took it away. She turned away from him and put it on the indoor tree with the others. His toys lived in a basket. So maybe these toys lived on a tree.

Very strange.

He picked up his rattle and shook it. It was white. He had no idea why mother was telling him what color things were, he could see the colors. She had been doing that all day. It was kind of annoying, really. He had things to do. The television was off, he wanted it on, but every time he turned it on mother turned it off. No matter how many times he looked to father he got no help. Father just sat there on the sofa reading the paper in his hands.

Something else odd. It wasn't even good for stories.

"And look here, red. R-ed." Said mother as she took another shiny ball from the box. Touichirou held his hand out again and, again, mother took it away. He held his rattle out and tried to say white. He couldn't. He didn't know why he couldn't, he just knew that he couldn't. People could speak to him but he couldn't speak back. He didn't know when it had occurred to him, when he had discovered it, that he couldn't speak back but now that he realized it he was just…annoyed.

So he screamed.

He screamed and threw his rattle. It hit the television. Now father was looking at him. He held out his hand. Father should have known that he wanted to watch television, he did it every single day. That was what he did. He didn't know what had made it change. He didn't know why father was here, either. The sun was wrong, the light was wrong, and the shadows were wrong. Things were too wrong and too different.

So he screamed some more.

"Abi, he's doing it again." Said father. Mother turned away from the inside tree and ran over to him. He pointed to the television and turned it on…and she turned it off. She didn't even stop to pick him up, she just walked over to the television and turned it off! He screamed louder. It was all that he could do.

Well, most of what he could do.

He reached out, not with his hands but with his feelings, and tried to turn the television on again. As soon as he did mother turned it off. The lights above him got brighter, and the ones on the tree turned on. He looked towards father but father did nothing but shake his head. He looked towards mother. All she did was turn the television off again…

All he could do was cry.

"Touichriou, no, no television. We're doing the Christmas tree now." said mother as she walked over and picked him up. He reached out and grabbed her hair. He pulled as hard as he could. She just pulled her hair away and tapped him on the head. He looked towards father again and pulled on mother's shirt. Father was looking right at him!

And still, he was doing nothing.

"Abi, you're being ridiculous." Said father

"This again?" asked mother

"Yes. This again. I know that these things can be difficult to understand, especially for a woman, but the baby has nothing to do with the electricity. The wiring in this house is just bad, that's all." Said father. Touichirou pushed himself away from mother and tried to crawl towards father. He could feel mother's arms beginning to let go. He didn't care if mother dropped him.

He could always catch himself.

"You've been saying that since the day he was born." Said mother

"No, not since then. Shortly afterwards." Said father. Touichirou threw himself towards father, and managed to get free, but mother caught him. She hadn't needed to, he had been about to catch himself, he was very good at it. He hardly ever let himself fall, not like when he had been too little to move around the room.

That had been so long ago.

Back when the air had been warm and the sun had been out. Now the sun hardly ever saw him and the air outside had turned cold and painful. He didn't like it, it was too strange and different. Almost as different as having father in the house during the daytime. The sun went homer much earlier these days but father, recently, had been home even when the sun had been up. It was odd and Touichirou didn't understand why.

If father was going to be home then the least he could have done was help him.

"Be careful with him, that's my only son." said father, getting up. Touichirou reached over towards him but he didn't even look down at him, no, he just stood there. Touichirou tried to get out of mother's arms but she just held him even tighter.

It wasn't fair!

"If you think that you can deal with him then by my guest." Said mother, passing him to father. Touichirou reached out and tried to pull father closer. His buttons were the closest thing, his buttons and his shirt, though Touichirou could barely get a hold of them with his hands. He was weaker this way. He tried to pull father closer the other way.

He only managed to get a button free.

"I can't, I have enough on my mind without adding a baby to it." Said father, turning away. His button fell to the ground. Touichirou reached out and pulled it up without touching it with his hands. Sometimes it was easier this way. Sometimes it was harder. It was like trying to stand up only mother didn't tell him that he was a good boy when he did it.

She didn't even notice.

"Such as?" asked mother. He nearly fell as she moved him to only one of her arms. He held tight to the button, this time with his hands. It was smooth and soft. What else was he supposed to do with it?

"The fourth quarter. The numbers don't look at all like what they were projected to be and if we lose ground to-" said father

"Just last week you were telling me that your department was making record profits." Said mother as Touichirou put the button in his mouth. It was just as smooth and shiny as it had looked.

"What I specifically said was-" said father

"That's the gist of what you said, alright? I don't know the specifics but what I do know is that you don't listen to-" said mother

"I'm listening to you right now." said father

"And you don't help me even when you're home. It's like you're still at work even when you're here…and don't tell me that you have to provide for us. My father provided for me when I was a child but he still took the time to help decorate for Christmas." Said Abi

"That was in your country, this is mine, and I have a lot to do. Be happy that I'm here, my father never spent time with me on real holidays let alone this one." Said father. Mother's colors, what few colors she had, turned very bright then. Touichirou stopped knowing on the button in his mouth and looked up at her. He could feel a sort of pulling, there, on his own colors.

"Christmas is a real holiday, and it's an important one, and just…just help me put up the goddamned tree, alright? I can't do everything on my own." Said mother

"Then let me hire some decorators for you. You don't have to do…whatever that is." Said father

"It's a Christmas tree." Said mother. Touichirou reached up to touch her face. He didn't like the way she looked then, she didn't like it at all. Whenever mother said that she didn't like the way his face looked she pulled it up at the side. He felt the button in his mouth trying to slide backwards. He held it in place with his tongue. He wasn't ready to swallow it yet.

"Yes, I know what it's called but I have no idea what it's purpose is. Why it's significant to you, I mean. If you want to have a shrine built then I can find one of your priests, well I can have my people find one of your priests, and then you can pray to your heart's content." Said father. Mother shook her head, her hair hit him across the face. He pushed it away with his colors.

"I have no idea if you're being serious right now. I just…you have Christmas, it's a thing here. If it wasn't then where in the hell would I have gotten the tree." Said mother

"A nursery?" asked father. Mother tapped her foot and shook her head once again. The button in his mouth nearly slid down his throat. He coughed it back up. it hit the front of his mouth. He kept it in there. He was going to swallow it, just not now.

"I'm being serious. I genuinely have no idea what any of this is about. My family, father and I, never celebrated any holidays let alone fake…foreign ones." Said father. Mother stopped tapping her foot.

"Really?" asked mother

"Yes. You know how he feels about foreigners." Said father

"Of course I'm well aware of how your father feels about me, he made himself perfectly clear, and in two different languages too…whatever. Christmas is important, alright? We set up the tree and give gifts and eat way too much food that's bad for us and, I don't know, pray? My family was never very religious like that, we never even went to church, so I don't expect that of you but I at least expect you to be present." Said mother

"I am present, I've been present all day. I've wasted and entire day being present." Said father as he sat back down. Touichirou reached outwards towards father. He moved too quickly, though, and the button slid from the front of his mouth towards the back and then down his throat.

Too big!

"Wasted? If that's how you feel then-" said mother as Touichirou started coughing. It hurt! It hurt so much! It hurt so much that he couldn't even cry about it. It was like the cries were stuck and no matter how hard he tried to get them out they just got more and more stuck and-and-and why wasn't this getting any better!?

"Baby!" said mother. She turned him so his face was facing the floor and his back was facing up. So now not only did his throat hurt but also now he was dizzy. He felt like he was going to throw up again. That wasn't good. Whenever that happened mother put him in his room, closed the door, and didn't come back for a very long time. If mother put him away then father wouldn't be there and he'd be all alone and then-

And now his back hurt!

"Help me!" said mother as she hit him on the back. It was like what she did when he did something she didn't like…but he couldn't help this! He reached out with his hands and tried to pull it out. He pulled as hard as he could.

"Well?!" shouted mother as there was a loud crash and then a sound that he had never heard before. The colorful lights from the tree went dark. Mother's colors were very bright, which wasn't bright at all, but were brighter than normal. The brightest thing that he could see right now. The room was getting even darker, like the sun had gone away twice, and he didn't like it!

"I-I have no idea what I'm supposed to do!" said father

"He's obviously choking!" said mother as she kept on hitting him. He didn't like this, any of this. Everything hurt and it was too much and too loud and-

"I can see that! What do I-" said father before there was another loud sound. One moment mother had been holding him and the next they were both on the ground. His head hurt, his throat hurt, actually everything hurt. He didn't like this at all! He reached his arms out towards father. Father bent down…

And didn't pick him up.

"What….happened?" asked mother slowly. He turned towards her and cried. He reached out towards her but she didn't pick him up either! He turned to face father. He was just looking down at something in his hand…the only thing that should have been in his hand was Touichirou!

"He swallowed a button…one of my buttons." Said father as he held the button up to his chest. It matched the others on his shirt…Touichirou didn't know what was so important about that and why it was more important than him!

"I meant to me!" said mother

"Oh. I don't know. You just sort of tripped." Said father as he bent over again. He didn't pick Touichirou up, though, he just pushed him towards mother. Mother's dress hit him over the head as she stood up. Touichirou reached out towards her one more time before giving up.

Nobody was going to pick him up.

"I didn't trip, I know for a fact that I did not trip." Said mother

"I saw you trip with my own two eyes. I was standing right here, Abi." said father

"Well I didn't!" said mother, turning her back to the both of them. Touichirou looked over at each of them. Nobody was going to help him, he had to do this himself. He stopped crying. Nobody was listening anyway. He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up with his hands. This was still new. He would get better at it, though, mother and father had both said so. The last time he had done this they had both been so happy.

Now they weren't even looking at him.

"Abi-" said father

"What could I have even tripped over? I was standing right here, I didn't move a muscle." Said mother

"I don't know but I saw you trip…but it's a good thing. You managed to dislodge the button the baby was choking on." Said father

"How did he even get ahold of that and how did…how did the tree fall?" asked mother as Touichirou crawled past her. He was fine now, hardly anything hurt. Now was the time to go and see those colorful balls on the floor. New toys for him, obviously, and finally in a place where he could easily get to them. All he had to do was get past mother and-

-and now she decided to pick him up!

"I know you had something to do with this." Whispered mother as she picked him up. He tried to get out of her arms. He didn't want her to hold him, he wanted to play!

"What?" asked father. Touichirou tried to get free, he even reached towards father, but nothing helped.

"Nothing, it's not like you'd believe me anyway….just…if you want to go back to work so badly then go. Touichirou and I can do the Christmas decorating on our own…god knows he'll be more help than you can be." Said mother.

"What was that?" asked father

"Nothing, nothing, just…I hope someone's at the office to help you, that's all." Said mother. Sometimes she said things normally and sometimes she whispered, like they had to do when father was asleep. He didn't understand. Mother was very hard to understand. First she wanted to pick him up, then she didn't, and then she did. First she showed him new toys, and then she tried to hide them, and then when they were where he could get to them she picked him up.

Mother and father were so difficult to understand sometimes.

"You're right, I should go in to work today. No sense in wasting the day here…and don't worry, I'll have someone look into this Christmas thing for me and I'll have everything you need sent over. Like a new tree. That one was clearly an inferior product…just like this shirt. God, what's happening to this country." Said father. He rubbed his hand on Touichirou's head before he walked away. Touichirou couldn't see him anymore. It wasn't like he would have helped, anyway. Mother wasn't helping either. She was just putting him down on the couch…and she wasn't letting him down either no matter how much he tried!

"Look Touichirou, TV. There, you got what you wanted. See? You won." Said mother as she leaned over and turned the knob, the one that he wasn't allowed to touch. He didn't really need to touch it anymore and he didn't know why mother needed to. She was so strange sometimes.

But television wasn't.

He laid down and watched television while mother did something loud on the other side of the room. He didn't know what she was doing. It didn't matter. She wasn't stopping him from doing what he wanted to do. He didn't have to cry or reach out to her or anything. Father either. He didn't need either of them or their strangeness. Right now all he needed was television.

He would play with the indoor tree later.