#38 – Never
Sara was playing in the sandbox one beautiful afternoon in November. She had dutifully put on her jacket before going to play outside, but she'd shed it and tossed it aside after five minutes in the warm sun. She heard the creak of the door set into the privacy fence and looked up to see her oldest sister making her way toward the back door of the house.
"Rachel, play with me!" Sara whined/commanded. It was more out of habit than anything else; Sara didn't expect Rachel to do anything of the sort. It had been a couple of years at least since Rachel had paid her more than a token bit of attention. Now that Jordan was in middle school, Sara was left to fend for herself in the playtime department.
To Sara's surprise, Rachel stopped and looked at her. She looked frazzled for a moment, wearing the same expression her mother wore when it was "busytime at work." After a moment, Rachel unexpectedly smiled and walked over to the sandbox. "Hey, kiddo," Rachel cuffed her lightly on the top of the head. "What do you want to play?"
"For serious?" Sara asked her suspiciously. Rachel laughed.
"For serious. Want to play dolls? Or how about a tea party?"
"Tea party!" Sara agreed excitedly. In the back of her mind, she still knew it could be a trick…but she was prepared to suffer the consequences. She was too excited at the prospect of Rachel actually playing with her to care. "My table is over there!"
Rachel allowed Sara to take her hand and skip to the corner of the yard where the little plastic table was set up. She started setting the places with the plastic saucers and cups, and Rachel unexpectedly grabbed her hand. "Don't touch that, Sara! There's a spider." Sara looked, and sure enough, there was a fat brown spider in one of her teacups.
"Gross," Sara said. In her mind, the tea party was ruined. The stupid spider had ruined her one chance to play with Rachel. She started to cry; she didn't bawl, but two fat tears ran down her face and her lower lip trembled.
Rachel laughed and hugged her tightly. "Don't cry! It's all right!"
"It's not fair…I wanted to play tea party with you, and...and…"
"Well, we'll just have to have a real tea party," Rachel said, smiling kindly. Still holding Sara's hand, she led her to the back door and into the kitchen. Sara watched, fascinated, as Rachel opened up the Never-Touch Cupboard and set two places at the table with saucers, silver spoons, and fragile china tea cups.
Sara didn't want to say anything to stop this unexpected, fun development, but Rachel was being so nice, and she didn't want her to get in trouble. "We can play dolls," Sara offered reluctantly. "Mom'll be mad if we use her special cups."
"Well, then she'll just have to be mad," Rachel said as she set the kettle on the stove. She winked at Sara conspiratorially and added, "But I won't tell if you won't."
"I won't!" Sara agreed at once, and climbed into her chair at the kitchen table. She waited patiently for the water to boil, and watched as Rachel added tea to the serving kettle. "We're going to have real tea?" she asked doubtfully. "Mom doesn't let me. She says it has too much car-fiend."
"Caffeine," Rachel corrected as she poured them both a cup. "But I think ten years old is old enough for a little caffeine."
Though she would have liked to take credit for this advanced age, she corrected, "I'm only nine and a half."
Rachel just laughed and said, "Close enough." She scooped a lot of sugar into Sara's tea and a little into her own, and Sara followed her lead, blowing on the steaming beverage. Rachel went to the freezer, coming back to drop an ice cube in Sara's cup. Sara thought that was treating her like a kid, but she didn't say anything. She didn't want to ruin it.
"Now," Rachel said. "Tell me what's up."
"What do you mean?" Sara asked, a little suspicious. She'd worried about a catch to this out of character moment, and she could feel it coming on.
"What's up with you? How's school? Do you have a boyfriend?"
"A boyfriend? No way, gross!" Sara giggled. Rachel grinned.
"All right, maybe you're a little young for that. What about school? Are you getting good grades?"
"Yes," Sara replied dutifully in between blowing puffs on her tea. "I had a science project last week and I got an A."
"Good!" Rachel encouraged. She took a small sip of tea, winking as she stuck her pinky out away from the handle. Sara giggled again and copied her.
Rachel's face went blank and her eyes wandered out through the kitchen window, and for some reason this seemed to remind Sara how unusual this was. Without meaning to ask, she blurted out, "Rachel, why are you being so nice?"
A sad look crossed her sister's face, but she quickly killed it with a forced smile. "Because you'll never be nine and a half again. Now, what about your teacher? Do you like your teacher?"