“WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR SISTER?” MARK ASKED AFTER DINNER WHEN I WALKED into the kitchen and saw them kissing.
“Selective mutism,” Caoimhe replied, filling a glass of water from the tap. “Don’t take it personal. She’s like this with everyone except family.” She took a sip before adding, “That’s why she goes to school in the city and does all that therapy I was telling you about.” She shrugged. “She can talk perfectly fine when it suits her.”
“Why, though?” He looked at me and then my sister before asking, “Why doesn’t she speak like a normal kid?”
“The psychiatrists said it’s because of past trauma.”
“What kind of past trauma?”
“It’s not… I’m, uh, it’s a private family matter,” Caoimhe replied, cheeks turning red. “But at the rate she’s going, she’ll be thirty before she graduates.” She took another sip before adding, “All you need to know is Liz won’t rat us out to my folks.”
Mark turned his attention to me and smiled. “Hey, munchkin.”
He called me munchkin.
I liked it.
“She won’t tell your father we were kissing, right?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at my sister. “She can keep her mouth shut?”
“Duh.” Caoimhe rolled her eyes and popped a grape into her mouth. “I just told you she doesn’t rat. Besides, she barely talks to our father.”
“She’s mute with him, too?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did he hurt her or something?”
“No,” Caoimhe snapped, sounding angry now. “Why would our dad hurt her?”
“Sorry, I was just asking,” he replied, holding his hands up. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Caoimhe seemed to brush it off quickly because she started looking at Mark with gooey eyes again. “She likes you.”
“How can you tell?”
“She’s smiling. Trust me, she wouldn’t smile like that if she didn’t like you.”
“She looks like a little angel.” Mark smiled and crouched down in front of me. “Do you like me, munchkin? Hmm? Are you going to talk to me?”
“Oh, no, no, no. She might look like one, but don’t let that angelic face fool you,” Caoimhe laughed. “She screams like a banshee when she feels like it.”
“I bet I can get her to talk,” he said, tucking my hair behind my ear.
“You can try.” Caoimhe scoffed. “But no doctor has been able to fix her.”
“Would you like that, munchkin?” Mark asked, hand on my shoulder. “Would you like me to fix you?”
Nodding, I smiled back at him.
Yes, please.
“Where is she?”
“I know she’s in here.”
“I can smell her!”
Snickering, I rolled under my bed, trying to escape the smelly-sock monster, but it was no use.
“Gotcha!” A sock-covered hand shot under the bed and grabbed my leg. “Nom, nom, nom, just what I’m hungry for,” Mark teased in the funny smelly-sock monster voice, while he dragged me out from under the bed. “A tasty, little munchkin just for me.”
Screaming with excitement, I tried to scramble away but Mark was too fast for me. Hooking an arm around my belly, he pulled me onto his lap and pretended to gobble me up with his sock-hand.
“You are, hands down, the best boyfriend in the world.” Leaning against the doorframe, my sister smiled at us. “Thanks for being so patient with her.”
“We don’t mind, do we, smelly-sock monster?” Mark said, and then he used the funny monster voice to say, “No, we don’t mind. We love gobbling up little munchkins.”
“Well, now that you’ve made my sister’s night, how about you make mine?” She winked at him and inclined her head toward the door. “Before your dad picks you up.”
“Sorry, munchkin, but the boss has spoken.” He set me down on my bed and ruffled my hair. “I’ll play with you the next time I come over, okay?”
Nodding happily, I watched him leave, while hoping Caoimhe brought him back soon.
My very first friend.
