DancingKitsune

Tonight was like every other night that I can remember.

Momma was sitting Indian-style on our large deep red sectional with me in her lap, brushing my hair out over and over again until my (sometimes) unmanageable hair calmed down. Daddy was sitting the same way next to her doing the same thing, only he was brushing Az’s hair out. Tommy was sitting next to Daddy the same way that Momma and Daddy were, and he was brushing out Gabe’s hair.

Little Sabie is only three, so Momma did her’s first. Sabie was already fast asleep in her travel crib by the side of the couch. Her long, sunflower petal colored hair was already parted and braided on each side. Well, her hair that reached her shoulders were long for a two year old.

Momma, Daddy, and Tommy always would brush out all of our hair every night. When they deemed our hair brushed enough (or “acceptable” as Tommy would put it, whatever that word meant…), they would part our hair into half and braid the half until there was no hair left to twist together.

Sometimes, when they would start earlier than usual or felt like we earned staying up longer, they would separate our hair into many little parts and in the end we would have whole heads full of thin, little braids. When Mama feels creative enough, she would put random, colorful beads in my hair all over the place because she knew I liked it.

I don’t take my hair out in the morning after she put the beads in; I just wear them to school. One time last year in 3rd grade, some boy had made fun of my braids and called them girly and called me gay. I knew what gay had meant because Momma had told me about it a long time ago. I kicked him as hard as I could where Tommy had shown me to, and he never made fun of my braids again,

Tonight they started earlier than usual again, so by the time nine rolled around they felt like braiding still. So Gabe, Az, and me were watching some cartoon movie about a fish-girl who fell in love with a prince guy. The movie was really old; from when Momma and Dad and Tommy were younger than we were.

I always love when Momma and Daddy and Tommy would let us watch movies instead of us having to listen to them talk the whole time. They would always talk about stuff like work and how their day was, so it was really, really boring most of the time.

When the movie was almost over, I looked over to see that both Az and Gabe’s hair was finished and they were fast asleep in Daddy and Tommy’s laps. I look up at them to see that Tommy was tugging a little at Daddy’s hair and Daddy just chuckled. Tommy lets go and whispers something in Daddy’s ear. That made Daddy turn and hit Tommy upside the head slightly, but Tommy only grinned at Daddy’s red face.

They were acting like the army guy and the girl who pretended to be an army guy in that one Disney movie.

I look back up to Momma to see her smiling down at me. I point over to Daddy and Tommy mouthing ‘gay?’. At first Momma’s bright green eyes widen and she just stares at me, but then she smiles and mouths “ask”. I nod my head and turn to the side.

Lifting myself to my knees, I lean over to Daddy and tug at his sleeve, and he looks over to me. “What is it, little lion?” He asks me with a smile. I stare at him for a while (with what was probably a funny face, because when Tommy looked at me he giggled slightly). I look over to Tommy, and decided to ask him.

“Are you and Daddy gay?” I ask him with a tilt of the head, my braids fall to the sides and some beads clicking against each other quietly.

Both of their mismatched eyes widened in surprise as they sputtered and they turned pink in the face. They looked at each other, and a few times they tried saying something before stopping themselves.

I pouted at them, crossing my arms as I sat on my heels. Momma laughed with her hand over her mouth, eyes getting a brighter Daddy and Tommy continued their sputter. Momma calms down and says, “Come on now, you two. Can’t even answer him while he’s nine?” Then she starts laughing again.

“It’s your fault he even knows the word, Blythe.” Tommy says as he crosses his arms and looks angry at Momma. Momma gasps loudly and covers her mouth, but she has a smile on.

Daddy takes a deep breath and sighs, pinching between his eyes. “Well, yes, I guess we are. But I still love your Mommy very much.” He says slowly, choosing his words carefully.

“So I have two Daddies?” I say, tilting my head again, somewhat understanding.

“While I love your Father, I only like your Mother, hehe.” Tommy says as he stands up, laughing and holding Gabriel close to their chest as he went. Momma giggled and rolled her eyes, then swatted him as he walked past her.

Suddenly I was lifted up at the waist and the ground got far from under me. I shouted some and wiggled around, surprised at the sudden movement. “Calm down, Leon! If you get all riled up, you’ll never fall asleep.” Momma said with a smile as she pulled me to her chest. “Angel, watch my little Saber while I put Leon to bed, will you?” She calls over her shoulder to Daddy. I see him nod, and though Momma didn’t see it I know she knew.

When I was in me and Azrael’s room, Momma tucked me in. “Sleep tight, my little lion.” She said as she kissed my head. She turned the lamp from my side of the room off with a click and my half of the room went dark. When she was about to leave the room, I called out to her.

“So Momma, I have two Daddies, and I still have you right?” I asked her. She turned over her shoulder and smiled at me.

“Yeah, you have all three of us. Goodnight now, Le.”

“Goodnight Momma.”