Jellybean

            I really wished that Daddy hadn’t been stupid and died. Things got soooo boring after he was gone. Mom told me that he left me everything, but she never even told me what that meant! She just said that I had a lot of responsibility now. I didn’t ask for that! Blah!

            Responsibility sounded too gross! Like the stupid shower that broke. Nobody fixed it and I didn’t know what to do and it kept running and running!

            It made me super mad!

            I wished really hard that it would stop leaking and making the floor all wet. Then I felt tingly. My hands started to sparkle and I didn’t know what was going on!

            Out of nowhere the puddle cleared up. Too bad the shower was still sucky.

            Mom’s talk wasn’t the only thing that I hated about Daddy dying. Everybody was acting super strange! There was crying all the time and I got soooo sick of hearing it!

            When my brothers weren’t crying, they were being weird. Hans didn’t want to go swimming with me anymore, and he didn’t want to watch me float.

            And Claudey danced and laughed a lot. I thought it was fun, but he wouldn’t let me dance with him. He wouldn’t even let me watch!

            Mom was the worst. When she wasn’t crying, she acted just like a creepy zombie. She stopped playing music. And she stopped reading bedtime stories to us.

            But most of the time she was crying.

            I guess I did too sometimes. I couldn’t stop it! Whenever I thought about Daddy or responsibility or Mom being a brain eater, it made me really really upset. I had a bigger family than most the kids at school, but I felt like I was alone.

            At least I had my toy. He was always with me.

“That’s a pretty nice doll,” I heard a woman say to me when I was practicing singing to him. She sounded kinda funny, but I didn’t look up to find her. Ever since Dad died, people stopped in and out of the house all the time. Uncle Fred brought them over to help Mom.

“Thanks.”

“You know, that doll is magic.” The lady still sounded weird. Like she was too close but talking to me behind a wall somehow. “Do you believe in magic?”

            I looked and didn’t see anyone. I jumped to my feet, picking up my doll to protect him. I was kinda scared. “Where are you?”

“You don’t need to be afraid. I’m your new friend. Your Daddy was supposed to tell you about me, but he didn’t have time unfortunately.”

“How come I can’t see you?”

“Do you believe in magic?”

“Maybe.” I had to think about it. And when I was thinking about her question, I forgot about mine. “Hans says I have super powers because I can float.”

“That’s because you have the ability to use magic. Just like me and just like your doll. Sometimes it’s hard to grow up like us, so I’m going to be here to help you.”

That made my eyes feel hot like when I thought about the responsibility talk. “Why’s it going to be hard? I don’t like things like that! Like the stupid shower that’s always running!”

“Shhh, it’s okay.” I kinda wanted her to go away. It was nice to not be alone, but she was confusing me. “Close your eyes and focus on what I’m saying.” I shut my eyes and thought about her funny voice. “Can you hear me better?”

The lady sounded much clearer. “Yeah, I can!”

“That’s because I stay in your mind. I’m a witch and that’s my magic.”

“Are you always going to be there?”

It took her a second to answer me. “Yes.”

“This is soooo sweet!” I shouted and jumped. “I don’t have to be alone anymore!”

            I talked to the witch lady for a while. She told me a lot of stuff and I didn’t really get most of it. She said that my great-grandma picked me to have her inside my mind, and that more of my family would join her soon. I couldn’t wait! I wanted to have a ton of friends!

“Does your doll have a name?” the witch lady asked me after we talked about all the people I’d get to talk to soon.

“No. I couldn’t pick one.”

“Well, everyone needs a name. What do you think he’d like to be called?”

I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Jellybean.”

She paused again. “Jellybean? Are you sure?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Sure.”

“Er, okay. Put Jellybean on the ground. I want to show you something.” I did what she said to do.

            My doll sparkled like my hands but more colorful. He popped up and got really big! “Narissa, this is Jellybean. He’s going to help you too.”

            “Heya Narissa! I’m happy to finally meet you!” Jellybean said. I giggled and smiled. I was super excited to finally have a lot of friends! Ones that didn’t ask why I was blue or say that they were sorry about Daddy.

            Thinking about Daddy just for that second made me start to cry like everyone else. How stupid is that? I didn’t want to be that way in front of Jellybean.

            He didn’t hug me or tell me to stop. He hit me in the face with a pillow and said, “We should have a pillow fight!” I ran and grabbed one and hit him back. We chased each other around and I forgot about being sad again.

“This is gonna be really really fun!” I laughed.