MAKING MAMA SO PROUD / drawing

[elijah]

[div style="margin: 0 auto; border-width:0; width: 70%; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; line-height: 1.5; font-size: 9pt;"]Elijah enjoys themes of fantasy and adventure. They are an escape. They let him forget that he is fragile and vulnerable, that he has a condition that makes his heart weaker than most. In his imagination he is a warlock, a powerful entity who can protect his family, do powerful spells. He too likes picture books and stories. He's gotten to a point where he won't even read them, merely looking at the words and continuing the story on his own accord. Sometimes he will set up a small town made of pillows and blankets, cushions to secure the foundations as he carefully plants all his toys. He'll sit inside peeping his head out, pretending he's on look-out or is in a castle addressing the king or queen to receive a quest. And yet it is his imagination that makes him alone because his entire world revolves around what his blue eyes choose to see, what is soft ears choose to hear. Nothing exists if he doesn't want them too. He'd like to think he is entirely in control but bubbling beneath the surface are his confused emotions, feelings that know he feels alone. Well, he doesn't feel so alone now. His friend, Thirteen, follows him wherever he goes. It backs him up and he does the same - he does the same with all his rats. When he goes home, they even play his little games with him. He was just a boy with his rats.

He sniffles, seeing the sight of his two sisters and Aphra approaching them. He was aware of Priscilla's love for books and creating stories or pictures but he knows that their worlds cannot share, cannot combine. At the same time, he had also been too sickly to play with his siblings during their earlier months of development. He was always resting because of his heart. "Thirteen says he wants to be included too," Elijah mews, wriggling his toes and he approaches. They all faintly resemble them, their family. His eyes drift from each sibling to each sibling - Kaisa, Stella, Eris, Priscilla, himself... then his gaze moves towards his parents, the three of them. They are a family of eight, he realises. He picks up a dark grey crayon, lifting it in the air: "can you draw him on top of my head - satis placeeeet?" Elijah wouldn't feel too fussed if Sil refused to draw his rat but he was sure Thirteen would take offence to it.