By the time Father returned home, Theo and I were competing to build the best castle out of blocks while Mother cooked dinner.

“Hello family,” Dad announced his arrival.

Theo and I raced over to hug his legs.

“Hi Papa!” I grinned up at him.

“Don’t let go!” Theo conspired with me. “We’ve got you trapped!”

“Oh no! What ever will I do?” Dad played along. He lifted his hands, fingers drumming in the air. “Perhaps I can tickle these pests away!” His fingers descended on us and I broke first, releasing my meager hold for the safety of being clear of his reach.

Theo’s face turned red as he failed withholding his laughter. He grappled on for a little longer before yielding.

“Papa?” I requested his attention.

“Yes?” He took off his boots and set them in the row of our shoes by the door.

“Can I see your books, please? I won’t damage them. And I wondered if you could teach me to read too?”

“What brought this on? Of course I can help teach you to read. You can study after dinner,” Dad said.

“Yes!” I cheered. If I had been denied, I might’ve resented it a bit.

“We went to town like I told you yesterday,” Mom took over the conversation as she stepped to the open kitchen doorway. “Elliot came with us and showed Maddie the book shop.”

“Right, I wish I could’ve been there for her first trip.” Dad inspected our castles and nodded appreciatively. He disappeared into my parent’s room. He returned with three books and set them down on the coffee table. I scrambled over and bounced on my feet in front of the priceless treasures.

“This one is called, Wood, Magic, and Me. It’s about connecting better to nature to get more out of my magic. I’m not sure how much it helped me though. I naturally had a good grasp of earth and wood, and I don’t feel a need to master anything else.” He set the book aside. The next book had a broken spine and frayed corners. “This is a book about parenting. I’ve read this one a lot. I even read it to your mother before Theo was born.”

Warmth spread through my chest, as well as gratitude for being born into such a great family. So far, I didn’t have a real-life example of bad parenting, but I knew it existed.

“Free at Last. This is about Azuria,” Dad explained the last book.

I gently took the parenting book out from the others and checked the back of the front cover. A list of names scrawled down it in a list of owners. The last one was my father’s, Nathaniel. I wondered if I would be the next name or not.

“Dad and Mom, you’re really great parents, so this book must’ve taught you some good stuff,” I told them.

Mom made a happy noise while Dad picked me up and sat me on his lap. He hugged me as I held onto the book. Joy made me giggle.

“I want to be with you guys forever!” I declared. “I love my family!”

“I love my family too!” Dad seconded. “I have the best family in the world!”

“Yeah!” Theo joined in, pumping his fists in the air as he hopped in a circle.

“We are truly blessed,” Mother said, still in the kitchen. “I love our family.”

“Not as much as me!” Theo motioned to his block castle. “I’m going to get rich and famous for slaying monsters and bad guys and buy us a big castle to live in together!”

“I’d rather you stay safe here. Monsters are scary,” Mom said, but she couldn’t dampen his fervor.

“Maddie! Let’s play battle! We’re each ruling our castle and have to try to break the defenses of the other to destroy our opponent’s castle.”

Dad set me down and I returned the book to the stack, looking forward to finishing dinner to get that first reading lesson done.

I stood in front of my block castle and set my hands on my hips. “You shall not pass.”

“Oh yeah? Is your army better than mine?” Theo dropped to his hands and knees, using extra blocks as his soldiers, lining them up between our lands.

I sat down and set up my own troops.

We used our imagination for the fighting, and I let Theo control the pace and direction of the game. He ended up winning in an imagined massive fireball explosion of my castle that happened to be his fist as Mom called dinner was getting cold.

After eating I sat next to Dad on the bench and he went through the alphabet with me. I pretended to struggle, but by the end of the lesson he proclaimed I was the brightest child in all of Azuria.

***

The next day I dusted around the house, a chore my parents designated me capable of. Dad was away working and Mom brought in a tub of dry clothes from outside when Theo emerged from his room.

“It’s clean,” he announced.

I perked up. “Can we go to town then?”

Mother peeked into his room. From my vantage point I couldn’t see any clothes or fake swords on the floor. “All right. You can go, but be back before dinner.”

“Thank you!” I put the feather duster away and hurried to put on my shoes.

Someone knocked on the door as I reached for the knob. I pulled the door open and frowned at Elliot. “We’re going to town, so Theo can’t play with you.”

“Hey! Don’t say what I can’t do.” Theo moved in front of me. “Are you here to play?”

“That was why I came, but if you’re going to town, I can go with you,” Elliot said.

“Okay. Bye Mom! We’re leaving!” Theo shouted.

I reluctantly followed Theo outside, head slumped as I pulled the door closed.

I turned around and found them racing ahead. I ran after them, surprised that they didn’t stop at the first break in the road as I assumed. They continued running, egging each other on. I tired, slowing down as they ran forward as if I didn’t exist. Without Mom to keep them in check and because I didn’t want to be a whiney baby, I became irrelevant.

Fine. I was going to dance with the elves and they couldn’t stop me.

I ran again as soon as I caught my breath.

“Hurry up slowpoke!” Theo yelled at me. They waited at the bend. Elliot had won and Theo’s legs quivered with the desire to be off winning the next match.

Elliot tapped his foot as I pushed my lungs to burning.

As soon as I got close, they got took off. I walked after them, pooped.

This wouldn’t do. How could I dance if I was exhausted?

I walked the remainder of the trip, deaf to Theo and Elliot’s cries of impatience.

“You can do what you want. I’m going to the square,” I said as we entered town.

“No you’re not,” Theo said. “I’m in charge of you and I say no.”

I frowned at him. “I thought you were nice, big brother. Have you tried dancing? It’s fun.”

“But elves are tricky. You can’t trust them. Don’t you remember the story about the girl who trusted an elf and ended up trapped in a cave?” Theo asked as we stood in a huddle.

“Yes. She got saved by a prince and the elf was brought to justice. But that was one story, one elf. You can’t judge all of them based on one story,” I said and headed off.

Theo moved ahead of me and planted his feet, arms outstretched to his sides.

“No. We’re going to go somewhere better. It’s where kids hang out.” Theo held out his hand. I took it, giving in momentarily.

“And where’s that?” I asked as his mood dramatically lightened while mine hovered over sour.

“We’ll show you,” Elliot said.

They brought me down an alley before we could reach the square. I considered them conspiring against my wishes.

We came out of the alley onto another road. We entered a three-story building. To the boy’s delight and my lessening frustration, we found kids sitting on child-sized chairs watching a puppet show.

We sat near the back where there was room for the three of us.

“There are other rooms where you can see and learn different things. You can go to any of the first two floor rooms, but not the third-floor ones for older kids, okay?” Theo told me.

“So, I can explore this building?” I asked as the people voicing the mice puppets spoke to each other in goofy tones.

Theo nodded. “Just don’t leave or you’ll be in big trouble. I mean it.”

“I won’t leave without telling you,” I told him.

He held out his pinky, apparently not taking me at my word. I pinky promised him and his attention slid off me.