Page 115 of The Champion
Chuckling the words out, I muttered. “Ten minutes. Yesma’am.”
Even though my little angel couldn’t tell time, I knew asby the way she stomped from the tent, she’d be back in less than two minutes.
Sure enough, Arie came stomping back, this time with alife jacket around her and a bucket in hand.
“What’s with the life jacket?” I knelt down to adjust thestraps to fit her snuggly.
She glanced over her shoulder at the boys having an earlymorning water fight by the lake.
“Aunnie Amee,”
I saw Ami wave at me. After last night, she must haveknown the boys get a little crazy at times because she strapped life vests onArie, Alexis and Lily for their safety.
Sway woke up with all the screaming from Spencer whenAiden threw a snake at him he found in the lake just before Arie and I left topick flowers.
I heard her grumbling about the bugs and her cuts whenshe yelped as she unzipped the tent.
“Oh son of a—”
“Say good morning to mommy Arie!” I said loud enough forher to hear.
I did this for two reasons. I didn’t have any money on meto hand over to Arie for Sway’s cussing and two; Arie was like a goddamnsponge. Anything you said, she repeated and at the most inconvenient times.
“Good morning sweetheart.” Sway smiled at Arie who lungedfor her and looked at me with a glare and then smiled. Her smile was somewhatconcerning though. It was one that had me wondering what I was missing “Did yousleep good?”
“Yeah,”
Sway looked over her outfit. “Did daddy dress you again?”
“No me.” Arie pointed to herself.
Sway kissed her chubby cheeks.
“You did good. You look beautiful!”
They spoke for a few minutes until it was time for Castento eat, he didn’t like to wait.
“C’mon sweetie, let’s go get mommy’s present.” Ariepopped up from Sway’s arms and followed me. I smiled back at my wife but sheglared.
Being out in the backwoods of Alabama, we didn’t find anyflowers. Found a few snakes and quite possibly the largest spider I’ve everseen in my entire life, but no flowers. That depressed my little girl to thepoint of tears. You can imagine how this mademefeel. I didn’t likeSway crying let alone our adorable little spaz children.
I didn’t deal well with the crying so in turn, I was nowmaking a s’more at eight in the morning for her to keep the tears at bay.
On the way back, I did indeed promise a s’more when Arielooked up at me and grinned. “Daddy, why your hair pink?”
I shook my head remembering Sway’s smile. “Oh, becausedaddy has assholes for friends,”
“Assholes?”
“Never mind.”
Sway came walking up to the fire. “Sucker,”
“You’re one to talk.” Slowly, I turned the marshmallow tokeep from burning. “You went to get coals yesterday and bought half the goddamnstore.”
“Whatever.” She sat down beside me with Casten in herlap. “Nice hair.”
“Yeah, I think the color goes nice with my skin.” Igestured to all the bug bites.
