My life with the Sullivan boys

At the reception the air was heavy and thick with grief, my boys were thankfully distracted by their Ipods and only looked up to sip from their lemonade or take a bite from their brownie. Finally the battery life drained to 0% and they looked around. "Where is he?" they inquired. "He's around, go look for him" I pleaded. They found their cousin and continued the paper airplane making from the night prior, but it didn't seem to hold their attention long enough. They returned to the ballroom to find their cousin's cousin from the other side of the family, standing with his dad and his girlfriend. It took only a moment and the three of them were wrestling on the floor of the country club ballroom, in their Sunday bests. This continued for another twenty minutes and as it did the other cousins started to gather on a nearby bench. I'd look over every few minutes while staring endlessly at the memoriam on the screen to find all three boys hiding be...

I awoke in a strange bed walked out to the room out from the guest room to find everyone preparing for breakfast. In the corner of the room stood a tired old desk holding an ancient desktop computer, sitting at the desk was a five year old boy. Eyes as bright and blue as the summer sky, and voice scratching and new. The scratchy voice spoke to me after prompting from his mother. Explaining the game he was working on, I could only nod and give a kind smile. Not being a mother myself yet, I studied this boy with amazement. Curious, calm and cute as a button, that scratchy voice and the boy that it accompanied and I began to become acquainted. He sat next to me at meals that weekend and I tried to figure out how to talk to this little human. The following summer I was even more a part of the family, but not officially. The scratchy voice was still with him, but he was growing. At least two inches taller and mildly more coordinated, my soon- to-be husband and I secretly giggled while...