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MAIREAD CASE

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When they were old enough to be alone together, Tiny and Izzy played all day in that in-between space. They were short, which made the grass tall. They played with sidewalk chalk and woolly bear caterpillars, and ornamented the beer dish slug traps with saxifrage. Tiny and Izzy pretended to be color fairies, which means everything you say has to be about color somehow. It’s important to play pretend with people you love, because then when disaster happens, you have other memories and options. Once Izzy was blue and all she said was moon moooooon mooon. Months later, she crashed into a signpost on her bike and woke up the next morning with a blue knee. Moooon, said Tiny when she saw, and they laughed.

Tiny and Izzy played pirates and orphans, only the neighbors looked out their windows and didn’t understand. They called Izzy’s mother and said, your child is tied to the telephone pole with jump rope. She is screaming, and we can’t tell if she’s really hurt or not. Izzy wasn’t. She was trying it out.

Later, Izzy’s mother explained to them both that some games need to be private, like when Tiny took off her shirt to read in the sunshine. It wasn’t bad, but it was a private thing. Tiny didn’t understand. She was the only one playing. No one else felt the breeze on her back, or the grass pressing into her elbows. It was already private.