Pearls of Wisdom and Foolish Mutterings

Life in the New Family

The little girl named Kimberly was very smart so she quickly learned all the rules of her new family. She also learned to keep all of the secrets, even from Gommy and Bert, although this made her sad. She didn’t remember very much about being happy, now. But she was so busy taking care of her brother, Michael, that she didn’t have time to think about much else. It wasn’t so hard to take care of Michael, but Kimberly wished her mommy and daddy would stop buying him toys that were dangerous. Like the chemistry set they bought him one Christmas. She spent all morning reading the warnings on the box and didn’t even get to play with her new Barbies. Then her mommy and daddy went out and the first thing Michael did was get his chemistry set out and open all the little plastic containers at one time. He lined all of them up on the coffee table and started pouring some of them together in the little plastic bowl that was for mixing.

            Kimberly kept telling him to be careful, be careful; but Michael was never careful. She was in the kitchen looking for breakfast for both of them when she heard a big sneeze and then Michael started wailing. She ran to the living room and there sat Michael with a face full of powdered chemicals and powder dust all over his clothes, the table and the couch. He was crying and rubbing his eyes with powder-covered fists and he kept licking his lips and spitting. Kimberly grabbed him by the shoulders, guided him into the bathroom and splashed gallons of water all over his face until he finally wouldn’t let her keep doing it. She made him sit in a chair while she cleaned all the powder from the table and the couch and carefully put the lids back on every container. She made Michael sit beside her on the couch while she read the lid of the box, panicking every time she read something that said do not get chemicals in eyes, nose or mouth.

            After a while, Michael stopped crying and wanted to go play, but she made him sit there with her because she was scared of what the chemicals might do to him. She kept asking him if his eyes hurt, if he could see, if he felt dizzy, until finally he told her to stop asking so many questions and he went to find his Mr. Magoo doll. Kimberly was sitting on the couch crying when her mommy and daddy finally came home. When she told them what happened, her mommy ran to Michael’s bedroom and her daddy started reading the box. She could have told him what it said, but she was mad at both of them, so she let him read it for himself.

            A few months later, for his birthday, they bought Michael a wood-burning set. Michael was very happy. He went in to his bedroom with his new toy and made burn marks on his headboard, and his dresser. Then he started burning the plastic off his toy box. That filled the house with a terrible-smelling smoke and made Kimberly’s mommy and daddy take the new toy away from Michael and put it away. Kimberly didn’t like hearing her brother cry, but she was glad he wouldn’t have the wood-burning tool anymore.

            It was about then that Kimberly knew she would never be able to go back to live with Gommy and Bert. Even if her mommy and daddy would let her, she couldn’t do it, because someone had to be there to take care of her brother. It made her sad to think about never living at the farm with Gommy and Bert again, but she tried to think about the fun she had with her brother instead of about that. She really liked having a brother, and at least they did get to see Gommy and Bert at Christmas. Maybe it will be okay, she told herself.



What Kimberly didn’t know was that everything was about to change.



…to be continued…