Since kindergarten worked on a half-day schedule it mercifully came to an end not much later. After enduring Miss Henshaw’s reading from Winnie the Pooh they were told they could have free playtime until their moms or dads arrived to take them. Brian and Megan made their way over to the toy box dutifully while Rachel just sat by herself in the corner and sulked.
At first Brian was sure the toys would be stupid kid stuff that he’d have no interest in, but then he found there were several Thomas trains. They were brightly painted and appealing. They even had coaches that linked up to them. He hesitated to touch them at first. After all, why would he actually want to play with such silly toys? But then another boy grabbed Percy and James and ran off with them. Brian instantly felt a pang of jealousy. He wanted James! That was always his favourite character. Brian gave in and grabbed Henry and Gordon toys from the chest.
In moments he had Henry’s green plastic body attached to a line of red and white coaches and Gordon’s longer blue form linked to several box-cars. He lied down on the carpet on his tummy, swinging his legs automatically in the air above him, and began to push them towards each other. Without really thinking about it Brian began to make chugging sounds, quietly at first, but then louder. What did it matter if others heard him, they were all dumb kids anyway. Brian ran the two trains towards each other, imagining the spectacular crash that was coming and beginning to imitate Gordon and Henry’s voices.
The two toy trains smashed into each other, creating a satisfying wreck of coaches and box-cars. Brian grinned and made all sorts of smashing and crashing noises, giggling to himself at the fun of it all.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Brian stopped his giggling and looked up at Rachel, feeling immediately ashamed. “I… I was just…um…” he stammered.
“You were playing like a little kid! Is this what you want Brian? Did you make this happen to us, so you could play with kids’ toys?” she accused.
“What?! No! Of course I didn’t cause this, how could I? It just, I dunno, felt right.”
“He’s right.”
They both looked over to see Megan standing there with a Barbie doll in one hand and a toy brush in the other. “I was just playing with my Barbie, brushing her hair. And, well, it felt right. It was fun.”
Rachel frowned again, her cheeks still red from tears, her eyes still bloodshot. “What are we going to do?”
Brian put the toy trains down, feeling funny about playing with them now. “I’ll tell you what we can’t do,” he spoke up. “We can’t get separated again. We need to stick together guys.”
“How do we do that Brian?” Rachel asked. “We’re little kids now. Our moms will be here soon to take us hope for damned naps or something.”
“We could ask to have a play-date,” Megan suggested.
“What?”
“You know, a play-date. My little cousins have them with friends from pre-school all the time. It gives the moms a chance to spend time with other grown-ups too. We should convince our moms to let us all play this afternoon. Then maybe we can figure out a way to fix this.”
Brian and Rachel considered Megan’s suggestion, then they both nodded in agreement.
When Megan’s mom turned up a few minutes later the girl put on a convincing act. “Mommy, mommy, I wanna play with my friends today!” she announced, hopping up and down like a hyperactive little kid. “Pleeeease! Can I go over their house and play?”