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Everyone was sitting on the mat for story time. Nicky was sitting next to his best friend Jamie, who he always sat next to. They had been best friends since they were four years old, and now they were five, so being four was a very long time ago. They both liked tractors and dinosaurs and used to have the same sneakers but now Jamie had different ones because his feet got bigger and he had to get a new pair and maybe soon Nicky would need new sneakers too and maybe they could have the same ones again. Also Jamie had two mommies like Nicky did, and no one else at pre-school did so that made Nicky and Jamie the same.
Before story time they had done some learning, and after story time meant going outside to play time but now one of the girls in the class was talking. Nicky thought maybe her name was Mikayla, but he wasn’t sure. Some of the girls talked and talked, and some of them said no words at all, but he didn’t know what their names were anyway, he only knew Olivia, because her bag hung next to his on the hooks, so he knew Olivia’s name, but not the others.
“Yes, and I’ll go to the hospital to see my mommy, and my daddy will take me and we’ll see my new baby brother again. He’s little and tiny and you can hold him like this but you need to be careful.” Mikayla, Nicky was pretty sure that was her name, was one of the girls who talked and talked.
“That will be lovely, Mikayla,” said Miss Lee, who was their teacher and she was very nice and patient all the time.
“Do babies comes from in the hospital?” another girl asked.
“No, they come from in your mommy’s tummy,” said a boy called Lewis who knew everything.
“No, the baby comes in the hospital, that’s why my mommy is there,” said Mikayla.
Nicky looked at Jamie, but Jamie was rolling on the floor which you weren’t meant to do on the mat, you were supposed to sit nicely, but Jamie must have forgot. Then someone else asked a question and someone else said something but Nicky wasn’t listening anymore and wished he was brave like Jamie because he’d like to roll around too and his foot was going to sleep from sitting too long, and all these other kids didn’t have any clues about where babies come from but Nicky did because he’d asked his moms and they had said. Most people were option one, some were option two, and Nicky was special because he was option three. People could also be in their family because they were adopted, but that was a bit different, and you still had to get made and born, which meant that you still had to be option one, two or three.
Then Miss Lee was telling everyone to stand up and remember to keep your hands to yourself and they went outside and some kids ran to the play equipment and one of the girls who didn’t talk and always played on the swings went to the swings to play and some of the boys grabbed balls to play with. Nicky stood by Jamie while Jamie had a drink from the bubblers.
“You have two mommies too,” Nicky said to Jamie.
“Yeah,” said Jamie, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “And two sisters, and a cat, and - ”
“Yeah, but just two mommies and no daddies.”
“Yeah, just mommies,” Jamie nodded, wiping his hand on his trousers. “But there is grandpa and poppa and uncle - ”
“Yeah, but not dads at all?” Nicky said wide-eyed, cutting Jamie off even though his moms said it was rude to do that. “Not even in science? That’s option two for babies.”
Jamie pulled a face. “I don’t know about babies.”
“Did you mommies do science to make you a baby?” Nicky asked. He knew lots of things about Jamie and his sisters and his house because he’d been there a couple of times for a play, and they’d ridden scooters up and down the driveway and played in the treehouse and played Lego. But because Mikayla had been talking about her new baby brother, now Nicky was thinking about it and he needed to know. He knew Jamie couldn’t be an option one baby, because you had to have a daddy for that, and usually that was people who had just one mommy and one daddy. Option two still needed a daddy, but then science helped the mommy get the baby in her tummy. Option three was extra special. The only people Nicky knew who were option three were him and his big cousins.
“No, they don’t do science,” Jamie said. “Mommy does being in the government office, and mama is a pilot in the airplane and she goes in the sky. But not science.”
“Really?” Nicky asked with a smile. That all made perfect sense because his mommies did work too which wasn’t science, so Jamie must be right and he must be an option three baby too. “So you’re just made by moms and magic, like me?”
“Yeah, like that,” Jamie agreed. “Want to play tractors in the sandpit?”
“Yeah, let’s run,” Nicky said, curiosity satisfied, and they raced off to play.
…
At the end of the day, all the children went racing out of pre-school to greet their waiting parents. Nicky spotted his mama talking to Jamie’s mama and the boys hurried towards them.
“Hey, bud. Hi Nicky,” said Jamie’s mama, giving Jamie a hug. “Ok, we gotta run to pick up the girls from school then take them off to dance classes. I’ll see you later, Agatha.”
“See you later,” Nicky’s mama said.
“Bye, Nicky, bye!” said Jamie.
“Bye Jamie! Hi, mama,” Nicky said, giving his mama a big hug.
“Hey honey. How was your day?”
“Good,” said Nicky, loving the way his mama hugged him just tight enough so that it was all cosy, but not so tight that he couldn’t breathe.
“What did you get up to today?”
“Umm,” Nicky thought for a moment as he took his mama’s hand and they made their way towards the car. “Did you know that one of the girl’s mommies had a baby that came in the hospital? And that it’s probably an option one baby because she has a daddy, and Jamie is an option three baby like me because he said.”
“Jamie was born from magic?” Mama’s voice sounded like she didn’t really believe Nicky, also her eyebrows went up, which was another hint that meant she probably didn’t believe him.
“Yeah, he said,” Nicky repeated. “Because I asked.”
“Oh. Well, you know honey, Jamie may not know how he was made. Not all little kids do.”
“He said his mommies don’t do science, that’s option two. And he can’t be option one because he doesn’t have a daddy.”
“One of his moms is a pilot, her whole job is about science, but that’s not really the point here. Nicky, for someone to be born using magic, it means that their moms need to be witches.” Mama said that last part a bit quieter.
“Maybe they are!”
“Mmm, maybe, but I think they’re just gay. Not that that matters, but, umm, remember how we said that we’re not supposed to talk to other people about magic and witches and all of that?”
“It’s just Jamie,” Nicky said, pushing his hair out of his face. “And he’s even come and played in our house and I played at his house.”
“I know, but still best to keep it quiet.” Mama pulled the keys out of her pocket as they reached the car. “Anyway, we met Jamie’s uncle at his birthday party, remember his mommy’s brother? And remember how Jamie looks like him? Just a little theory that the entire carpark has about that one…”
Nicky didn’t know what mama was talking about because Jamie had lots of uncles, maybe four or five. But Jamie was his friend, and if he said that he came from magic, then that was right. Nicky took his backpack off as mama pressed the button to unlock the car and opened the door for him.
“I like being made by magic,” Nicky said as he climbed into his carseat and mama helped to strap him in. “And I like it that you’re my mama and mother is my other mama too and if you got another baby at the hospital then that would come from magic too.”
Mama looked sternly at Nicky. “You are not to summon a brother or sister, ok?”
“I don’t think I know enough magic to know what how to do that,” Nicky pondered.
“We don’t know that you know any magic, but no one ever knows what powers kids might have until they start to show up, usually at some inopportune time,” Mama said as she closed the car door.
Nicky swung his legs and waited for mama to hop in the front seat, thinking it might be fun to have a baby he could play with.
“Also if there was another baby, which there will not be,” mama said as she started the car, “You would have to share your toys.”
“But maybe if it’s a girl she might like Barbies and I don’t have those,” said Nicky. “And maybe she might like a scooter that has a basket and sparkly dangles from the handles. Mine is red and the wheels flash. Can I go on my scooter when we get home?”
“Yes. Just no manifesting siblings. The fact your cousins exist is bad enough.”
“Can they come play with me?”
“Aren’t they at college? That’s a rhetorical question, don’t try and summon them!”
Nicky smiled as they left the carpark and thought “Billy and Tommy come play with me” though he didn’t say the words out-loud so that mama wouldn’t know he was hoping they’d come anyway.
“I like that magic is real,” Nicky said, as they waited in traffic.
“Me too,” said mama. “But we have to try and live ‘normally’ in the ‘real world’.”
“But magic is real in the real world,” Nicky said, not sure what mama was talking about again.
“Want me to put on the Encanto soundtrack? English or Spanish, up to you.”
“Both! Both!” Nicky grinned as they finally pulled out of the carpark. At home they spoke both languages, though mama wasn’t very good at Spanish, but mother was good in both and she taught Nicky to be good at both too. “Encanto’s the best because that has real magic too, just like there is in our family.”
Nicky saw mama give a little sigh, but it was a slightly-exasperated one, not an annoyed one, and she was smiling too.
“Are you going to change the words and sing ‘We Don’t Talk About Wanda?’ When it’s actually Bruno?” Nicky giggled. It was always funny when mama changed the words and made up new ones to go with the tune. Singing in the car as they drove along was one of his most favourite things.
“I think I will,” mama said with a smirk.
“Oh, I remembered what we did today with learning, mama and me and magic and music all start with Mm!” Nicky exclaimed with a pride before launching into the songs he knew by heart, singing away as he had done for as long as he could remember.