Battle Scars [ Chresanto August Story ]

Battle Scars | 11

We were talking about our favorite colors when Chres got back. He was carrying a large plastic bag from the discount store, so I was pretty sure he'd found the air mattresses.

"See," I smile looking at Willow.

"What's up?" Chres drops the bags carefully.

"Uh ... Willow why don't you go get Beary ready for Dinner?" I smile.

She nods and runs into the bathroom with the bear.

"What was that about?"

"She thought you'd left ... for good."

"What? Are you serious?"

"I wish I wasn't."

While standing in a moment of silence I hear Willow shut the sink off and the door opens. I snap out of my thought and turn to Chres.

"So uh.. you find them?" I ask.

He nods and points to the bag. "Lime green and two orange ones."

I grin."Hey, they'll go with our towels." I pull the plastic packages out of the bag. "What color, kiddo?" I ask Willow.

"Green," she says.

"Okay," I nod.

I take out the green air mattress, unfold it and start to blow it up. Chres has already start on one of the others. It takes a lot of air to blow up one of those things, I discover. I've stopped twice-once because I got dizzy and almost fell over sideways, making Willow giggle again.

But we finally got them all blown up. Willow-and Beary- stretch out on the green mattress that Chres has tucked in one corner of the room. She rolls around, and I hope the damn thing doesn't pop.

"Beary likes it," she says.

"Good," I say. "Just tell him not to bounce too hard or there's going to be a giant pop in here."

"I'm gonna go get our supper," Chres says. "Just, I don't know, just do nothing until I get back."

Kinda hard to do nothing with Willow here. Beary wanted to try all three of the air mattresses, so I told Willow the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." Except it had been a long time since I'd heard the story, so some of the "Three Little Pigs" sort of got mixed in too, but nobody seemed to mind.

Chres came back with steak, baked potato and something that looked like lime-green cauliflower.

"That looks yucky," Willow says.

"What is it?" I ask Chres.

"I don't know," he says, spearing a piece with his plastic fork. "Mmm, it's good, though." He looks at Willow sitting next to me with Beary beside her on the floor, a takeout spoon in the teddy bear's lap. "Tell Beary it's got lots of cheese sauce. He can close his eyes if he doesn't want to look at it."

I was ready for Willow to pitch a fit, but she takes a small bite of the green stuff and lots of the sauce and tries a bite.

"So," Chres says. "What does Beary think?"

"He likes it," Willow giggles.

"Yeah, the bear's a gourmet," Chres chuckles with a grin.

"What's a gor...gor..."

"A gourmet," I smile.

"What is it?" Willow asks spearing another piece of the green cauliflower.

"Someone who knows about food," Chres says.

Willow thought about it for a moment, then nodded and went back to eating.

And it was as easy and comfortable as that. I washed Willow's hair and then she took a bath while Beary watched from the safety of the top of the toilet tank. I tucked Willow and the bear into the sleeping bag, and she fell asleep almost at once.