Frankie Leigh

Five Years Old

Frankie heard the voices getting louder out on the back patio. She scrambled to her feet, dropping the unicorn toys she was playing with onto her bedroom floor.

“We gots ta go, Milo!” she shouted at her favorite, favorite puppy. Scrambling to his feet, he chased her right down the hall, nipping at her heels, barking his own excitement.

Frankie was grinning so big.

Today was a special day.

Such a good, good day and she couldn’t wait.

Her mama had told her she was gonna get a new special friend and she felt so, so, so excited, and her belly was full of butterflies flappin’ their wings all over the place.

At the end of the hall, she cut to the left, and she raced through the kitchen, rounding around to the back door.

She burst out of it and onto the porch, the screen door smacking behind her. Milo did a circle around her feet.

Her uncle Kale was standing at the top of the porch steps. Her heart nearly burst. She loved him all the way to the moon and all the way back times a million. Without slowing, she wound through the tables set up on the patio, her feet pounding on the wood. Excitement blazed through her whole body, and she threw her arms into the air, shouting, “Uncle Kale! Uncle Kale! You came to see me!”

Then she came to a skidding stop when she saw the boy who was holding her uncle’s hand, his hair almost like the sun, red and orange and white, all mixed together, his eyes so big in his glasses.

Green like the trees.

“Is this mys new friend Evan?” she rushed to ask, looking up at her uncle.

Her new special friend who her Mama told her she had to play all, all day with because he was super, super special because he didn’t have no hearing and he had a special heart that he got when he was just a baby.

Her mama even taught her how to talk to him a little tiny bit.

Her uncle knelt down. “Sure is, Sweet Pea. This is Evan, and he’s really special to me, so I hope you spend the whole day playing with him because he doesn’t know anyone else here.”

Frankie made the sign she and her mama had practiced so much last night, her belly feeling a little worried because she wanted to do it just right. She lifted her hand and put it to the side of her forehead and pulled it away like a little wave.

HI.

And then the boy signed it back with a big grin that made Frankie grin even wider. Oh, she did like him, the way his eyes were big and funny and he kinda looked like a froggy.

And then he was moving his hands at his mommy.

His mama said, “Wonder Woman.”

Frankie laughed out in glee. Wonder Woman was what her daddy called her and it was the best name in the whole world and made her feel special, too. She liked it that her new friend called her that.

Her uncle Kale looked at Evan. “Yeah, buddy. This is Wonder Woman.”

Her uncle looked at her and swept his hand toward the boy. “And this is my little Hulk.”

Giggles came floodin’ out of her. “I likes the Hulk . . . but he’s not as strong as my daddy and my uncles! Thor and Cap’in ’merica.”

The boy didn’t look a whole lot like the Hulk, she thought. He wasn’t very strong. But that didn’t matter none. She liked him, anyway.

“Wanna play? I gots my puppy and he’s so fast and he likes to jump and lick and he’s so funny!” she rambled, pushing the curls out of her face when the hot breeze came blowing through, and then she was rememberin’ that her mama told her to talk slow because Evan had a special super power and it was that he could read lips!

And oh man, she thought that was so, so cool because she could barely even read a whole book that had ten pages.

Evan nodded fast, and he dropped her uncle Kale’s hand and chased right after her.

He clamored down the steps, his feet pounding to keep up, and she rushed out onto the lawn. Her puppy raced between them, darting around their ankles, running out ahead and running right back.

She laughed.

Laughed and laughed.

She gave it all she had as she ran across the yard, and Evan chased her, a funny noise rushing up his throat.

It was rough and strange, but when she looked back, she saw that he was laughing, his head tipped toward the sky, those sounds scraping up his throat and riding on the breeze.

Frankie thought she liked that sound, too.