Esperanza did not even look up from her book as she cautioned her daughter. "Grace, play nicely with your sister." She flipped the page. She was not actually reading. But sitting in the little park while the girls played was nice. She wore a black cloak over her shoulders. The fall air was not yet too wintery. But soon the girls would be cooped up inside all day every day. The plan was to only stay in the park for an hour. This would be one of the last days they could do so. Grace was wearing her green coat and had, with the white shoes she insisted on wearing everywhere. She did check to see that Grace was not too cold, every few minutes. The nanny had been sent off for the day. Espa had been no longer able to stand her presence.
"But mummmm," the elder daughter whined. "Charlie isn't playing right! She keeps trying to walk away."
Charlie seemed mostly oblivious to the fact that her sister wanted to play with her. While the younger girl had not yet spoke a word (Esperanza attributed this to Grace's tendency to speak for her, not any detriment on the part of the baby), she was quite fascinated with walking. In her little yellow coat and mittens, Charlie was clearly only interested in walking, falling, and getting her clothes dirty. Espa flipped another page of her book, watching her girls over top of it. Grace straightened the plush dragon on the blanket that Charlie had knocked over in her most recent attempt at standing. "Frank is going to be John."
Today the dragon's name was Frank. Frank had a different name almost hourly, depending on Grace's mood. He was called Gone-Gone for quite a long time, but as Grace's vocabulary had expanded, so had the lists of names the stuffed creature was called by. Frank the Dragon was never left at home on any adventures. He went with them to the park, and to the market, and to visit Sabrina or Vera or her parents. Anywhere Grace went the dragon went. He had gotten lost once, but showed back up later on the kitchen table. Espa imagined someone must have seen them with it and returned it to Kaleb. Kaleb Broadmoor and Family were not the sort of people one forgot.
"And you are Michael, and I am Wendy. You have to sit and listen. Charlie! You have to sit!" Grace threw herself backwards on the blanket as Charlie unsteadily pulled her self up to her feet yet again. "If you don't listen I can't tell you stories about Peter Pan." But It was too late, and Charlie's uneven, wobbling steps were guiding her away from her sister's demanding games.
"Frank is a boy!" Grace giggled."He can't be Tinkerbell."
All the previous week Frank had been a girl with various names ending in i that Espa was certain Grace learned from her father. The confusion on Frank's gender was understandable.
"Well alright then." Espa responded, unsure what else to say at this point in the conversation. Conversing with a three year old was always interesting. She leaned over to grab Charlie's hand before the baby got too far away. "Little Lotte, come back this way." Instead of walking back, Charlie just giggled and fell over again. Espa gathered up her daughter pulling her on to her lap as she sat listening to Grace lecture Frank the Dragon on the finer points of playing and how to do it correctly and how Charlie was terrible at playing. Regardless of one sisters abundance of leadership and the other's in ability to sit still, both of her girls seemed happy, and so she was happy. She leaned down and planted a kiss on the top of Charlie's head. Immeasurably happy.




