“He’s two,” I told her, shrugging helplessly.
He’d only just turned two last month, and I still couldn’t get used to my baby becoming a toddler. Luke and I still referred to him as the baby.
“Tommy, buddy, please stop charging about,” Luke offered with a yawn in his voice. He sat there, too long and lanky for Nan’s sofa, tired as he always was after a week of wheeling and dealing at his real estate agency.
Tommy stopped and pumped up his cheeks with air. He waited until Nan busied herself with pouring out the tea again, and then in Tommy-sized increments （which weren’t nearly as subtle as he thought they were）， he tiptoed over to her collection of ornaments that sat on a low table. He poked at her prize ornament, the one that Luke maintained looked like a bunny humping a lamb. I could only just hear Tommy whispering to himself, no, no Tommy as he poked it. I understood that this was one of Tommy’s little daily science experiments. Were the funny little animals going to hurt him or bite him? Poke, poke, poke. Were they hard or soft? Were they going to move or jump? Poke, poke, poke.
“You know to stay away from that, Tommy.” I hated myself as I said it. I sounded so much harsher than Luke, so authoritarian.
Nan swivelled her head around, her mouth dropping open at Tommy’s disobedience.
Tommy fired a glare of indignation in my direction, giving the bunny-humping statue one last rebellious poke. Why did Mummy and Daddy bring me here if I can’t play with the bright, shiny toys? Stomping away, he climbed on the tricycle Nan had graciously allowed him to have in the hallway. The tricycle used to be mine. He was too small to actually ride it, and Nan knew that. I doubt she’d have let him have it if his feet could touch the pedals.
I’d had enough. “Nan, we won’t have that cup of tea. We’ll take Tommy to the playground.”
From the tricycle seat, Tommy’s eyes widened hopefully.
“But I’ve already poured it,” Nan objected.
To make my words definite, I stood. “I think Tommy’s reached his limit. I’d hate to see your things get broken.”
She’d had those ornaments ever since I could remember. I’d grown up in this house. My mother had grown up here, too. I could bet we were both told the same thing. Don’t touch the nice things. Learn to be good.
I tensed as I waited for Nan’s reply. I already knew what it was going to be.
“You need to make more of an effort with him.” She twisted to her feet, exaggerating every stiff movement. Somehow, we being here had made her joints lock up. She was old and arthritic and exhausted. Yet, she’d made us tea! And Luke and I couldn’t even control one small child!
“He’s barely two,” I repeated, but my voice disintegrated under her glare.
We made a quick exit, stage right, while Nan muttered something I couldn’t quite catch.
The sun seemed impossibly bright as we stepped from the dim, enclosed space of Nan’s terrace house. December heat enveloped us. It was mid-summer—January only a few days away.
“Might be too hot for the playground.” I glanced at Luke, sweat prickling the back of my neck.
“Shouldn’t have said the P word, then.” Luke indicated down at Tommy, who was tugging Luke along by the hand.
I smiled ruefully. The playground was a long walk from here, but there was no point in trying to drive it. Sydney parking was a nightmare, unless you paid by the hour for it.
Forgetting the P word for a minute, Tommy paused to examine a flower that was poking its head out from between the posts of Nan’s fence. He batted at it, probably with the glee of knowing that his great-grandmother wasn’t here to stop him from doing that.
Luke bent to lift Tommy onto his shoulders. Tommy gazed at his lost flower with regret before realising his fortune at being taken up to this new, lofty position. He squealed, clutching handfuls of his father’s hair in sheer delight.
“Well, we’ve got the grandma thing out of the way for this week,” Luke drawled, yawning once more.
We lived on the same street as my grandmother, so we had no excuse for visiting less. Nan would be even more affronted by us not taking the time to visit her right now, seeing as Luke’s mother was staying with us and spending all that extra time with Tommy.
Tommy yelled with excitement when he first spotted the playground. He’d been there lots of times, but on each occasion, he was overcome with joy, as if he’d been shown the Promised Land for the first time. The playground was all water and splashy things and climbing things. There were even swings that passed through fine walls of water.