The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison

Author:Jonathan Evison [Evison, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2012-01-16T22:00:00+00:00

fingers

Yes, she’s demanding, capricious, at times exhausting, but my Piper will break your heart with her new gap-toothed smile, and her flapper haircut, and her tiny bitten fingernails. When you see my Piper in front of the Toasted Oats, spindly-legged in her rubber boots and cape, her brow crinkled in concentration as she runs her nimble fingers up and down the grocery list, you will want to gather her up in your arms. You will marvel at the care and attention with which she guides Jodi hand in hand down the supermarket aisle, past the Grape Nuts and the Lucky Charms. She will shame you with her patience as she bends down in the shadow of Tony the Tiger and endeavors for two minutes to interpret her baby brother’s earnest garblings while Daddy waves her on impatiently from the head of the aisle. And when she succeeds in understanding baby brother, and you see his little face light up in recognition, you will understand why he clings to her so.

When you see her coercing me in the checkout line, clutching a Heath bar as she tugs at my shirttail and begs me politely to make an exception to the not-before-dinner rule, you will pity me for having to say no. And when you see us pushing our cart across the parking lot toward the RAV4 and see that she is eating the Heath bar, you might think I’m a bad parent.

“DADDY, JODI HAS a snot,” Piper chimes from the backseat, where she insists on sitting beside him for the drive home from Central Market. The rain has let up and the clouds are hurrying east, and the weak sunlight fights its way through the treetops intermittently.

“Wipe it, then, honey.” Our eyes lock briefly in the rearview mirror, long enough for Piper to roll hers. She sighs at my inability to grasp the obvious—a habit she recently picked up from her mother.

“But I don’t have anything,” she explains.

“Then just leave it for now,” I tell her, turning my attention back to the road. “We’ll get a Kleenex when we get home.” Fuck. I knew I forgot something.

“Eww,” Piper says.

Glancing back, I see she’s defied me, she’s gone ahead and wiped Jodi’s nose. Corkscrewing her face, she now holds a glistening index finger at arms length.

I knit my brow into the mirror. “Don’t you dare wipe that on the seat, young lady.”

She knits her brow right back at me, makes sure I’m paying attention, then wipes her finger on the back of the driver’s seat.

“Damnit, Piper! What did I just say?”

She’s smiles devilishly at the D word and ribs Jodi, who is smiling, too. He garbles something unintelligible, unable to control his mirth.

“It’s not funny!”

They laugh at my ire. Daddy is a joke, a reliable source of amusement. Daddy is to be teased and taunted like a terrier. Above all, Daddy is to be tested.

“Damnit, it’s not funny!”

Piper eggs Jodi’s laughter on still further, poking his distended belly and pointing at the back of the seat, until the boy begins kicking his feet deliriously.

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