Emery likes to scale trees. He wants me to join, but I tell him I'd rather watch from down here in case he falls.
Emery falls down and scrapes his knee one day when I'm not there. He cries horribly, arousing a terrible turmoil in my chest when I find him. I'm cradling him and whispering fervently into his hair when the school nurse comes. She tries to take him from me, but I bare my teeth at her. We go down together and Emery sits on my lap while his knee is cleaned, dressed and bandaged.
He's not allowed to suck his thumb anymore and the teacher even put thumb-caps on him to stop the bad habit. So I let him suck on my thumb while I hold him and kiss his hair.
I bring Emery home with me for a playdate after school. I know it won't be a problem because we're very rich and we have everything he could want. My mom is unprepared and apologizes because she only put out three plates, one for her, one for dad, and one for me.
"That's okay," I tell her before she can take out another. "Emery will eat from mine. Right, Emery?"
"Right," he echoes.
From then on, we always eat from the same plate - in the school cafeteria, too.