Papillon

Papillion

By MsCoe

Soon after my first born son, Joaquin turned four I learned that I was pregnant for the second time. It was early July in Sunny California. I was very happy about the pregnancy and the fact that our family was growing. I was also hot, nauseous, tired and cranky in that first month and a half. Other than one fainting spell when pregnant with Joaquin I had loved being pregnant the first time around. This pregnancy was a little different. I was working full time and my husband was working long hours that included most weekends. On this Saturday my husband had left the house early in the morning and I had been trying to clean a little while trying to keep Joaquin occupied so that he wouldn’t ask for the 100th time to go to the park in the middle of the day.

I had taken Joaquin to the back yard and we had taken out the sidewalk chalk so that we could surprise Daddy with a drawing on the nicely shaded porch. Joaquin drew suns, flowers and a rough sketch of Daddy, Mommy and Joaquin flying a kite. I had it planned that soon we would be going inside and taking a long nap in front of the fan. It dawned on me that somewhere in the background I heard the house phone ringing. I ran to catch it, telling Joaquin to keep drawing and I would be right inside the door. I was hoping that it would be my husband on the phone and I could ask him to pick up something for dinner so that I wouldn’t have to cook. Joaquin said ok and as I looked back I saw that he was focused on his drawing. I didn’t get to the phone on time but I did make myself queasy from jumping up quickly and I knew I needed to get to the bathroom quickly. The bathroom window faced outdoors so I called to Joaquin to make sure he was still drawing. “Yeah, Mommy, I’m drawing lines and circles ok?” he asked. “O.k. sweetie. Mommy needs to go to the potty, I’ll be right out, you just keep drawing. “o.k.” Joaquin answered. After getting sick to my stomach and washing my face off I did need to use the restroom. I could hear Joaquin singing 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed so I felt secure that all was well. After using the restroom, I started for the door when I heard the phone ring. This time I reached it in time and sadly enough it was not my husband. I told my friend that I needed to get back to Joaquin and I would call her back after my nap.

I walked out the back door and found along the back of the house, down and around the block wall and over to the side of the unattached garage, the front door of the garage were lines and circles drawn in bright pink and blue chalk. Standing in the front of the garage as proud as could be was Joaquin with chalk all over his face, hands and clothes. “Look Mommy, pink lines and blue lines.” I stood there with my mouth hanging open. How could such a small child done so much in such a short amount of time. “Joaquin, I thought I told you that the chalk was for the floor over here?” I asked him. “And I put some here too” he told me proudly. “Joaquin, I told you it was only for the floor right here” I told him as I pointed to the porch.” Joaquin now sensed that not all was well and began to look less proud a little sad about what he had done. “Why, Joaquin?” I asked him. “you know Daddy isn’t going to like that you wrote on the garage and the wall.” “I’m sorry, Papillion told me to do it.” Papillion had long been Joaquin’s bestest most consistent make believe friend. Joaquin had spoken of Papillion since he could speak. “Well," I told Joaquin, "if Papillion is going to talk you into doing things that you know are not allowed than I don’t think we are going to allow you to play with Papillion any more.” This made Joaquin much sadder. I looked around at the back yard and knew I didn’t have the energy to take on this large task at the moment. “Let’s go and take our nap Joaquin. We will have to do our best to clean up this mess this evening when it is cooler”. “O.k. Mommy, Papillion said he is really sorry” Joaquin sad sadly. “O.k. but now you and Papillion don’t get to use the chalk for a while” I told him. “Papillion said he won’t get me into any more trouble, ok Mommy? Can Papillion stay?” Joaquin said as we walked into the house. “Only if he behaves” I told Joaquin.

Of course Joaquin continued to get into mischief over the years but Joaquin never used Papillion as an excuse for his behavior again. But, I sometimes wondered if Joaquin was covering for him.