The Magic Dog

Mary and her little brother, Cam, were sat under a fuzzy blanket in the living room, watching cartons. This was what they always did before going to bed. Maria had learnt to put her three-year-old brother to bed while parents were at work a long time ago. She was now nine, but her parents returned to work when baby Cammy was only one. They were reluctant to leave a girl, who was just supposed to go to school, looking after another kid, but they did not have much choice. Unfortunately, they could not have left children with a nanny because these services are too expensive. Asking grandparents to look after their grandchildren was not an option either because they lived in another country. This was leaving Mary one on one with a baby boy, who was just exploring the world and developing attachment. This girl had quickly become his primary attachment figure, and her going to school created huge amounts of separation anxiety for Cam. He would go to the nursery from early morning to middle of the afternoon: Maria would always pick him up on her way home. They would eat together, do small homework tasks and play childish little games for the rest of the day, then watch educational cartons about the planet and universe before bed.

On a typical Wednesday night, they finished the routine and got to the cartoons, when the lights went off. TV screen went pitch black after a white cross faded. A blue light was still seen shining through the balcony window, but the light was so delicate, it was clear that it would go out very soon too. Cammy was silent for a few moments, but after the realisation had come to him, he began crying. Things like this had never happened before in this city. This is why Maria was taken aback by what had just occurred. She kept zoned out for a minute or two, but afterwards she managed to get it together. She took Cammy’s little hand and explained to him that everything would be okay if they just went to sleep. There would be sunny in the morning, and everything would have gone back to normal.

However, Cam was not ready for a reality check, he proceeded to cry louder and louder, not even because the lights were out but because he never got to find out how the carton ended. It remained unknown whether a seagull ate Bob the crab or not. There were hardly any ways of how Maria could have calmed him down. She couldn’t read to him, the computer games were not a saver either, drawing seemed impossible because they would not be able to tell the shades in the darkness the lack of electricity had created. Getting the drawing supplies would be a struggle any way as the arts and crafts box had been put on the top shelf of the parents’ wardrobe. And Maria was not ready for a whole expedition this late and when she couldn’t see.

All of the more pleasant and less energy consuming options aside, she had to settle for storytelling. It was not her strongest asset – she had never been a thinker with brilliant imagination and marvellous ability to make up stories. But the choice was not something she could use that time, so she carried still sobbing Cammy to his bed and covered him with him teddy bear blanket. The boy was very whiny, so the blanket ended up on the floor, with teddy landing on his face. Thankfully, Mary was not as tired as usually she was when she would be putting the toddler to bed. Some sort of leftover energy allowed her to take her brother being impossible and childish. She put the blanket on his body once again, but this time she was holding the edges by sitting on them on one side and with her hands on the other. This way Cammy could not move and be annoying, although he was still crying. She started stroking his hair, which slowly but effectively started to calm the baby down. In a couple of minutes, he was in full alertness mode to listen to the story his sister assumably had prepared.

‘Okay, umm, you know how I was late to pick you up today?’ that was not true in the slightest, but children at the age of three have no sense of time, so Mary was winning here. Cammy still nodded as if she was very late and had almost left him to sleep in the kindergarten.

‘Yes, I am very sorry for that, Cammy, but I had to be late because I had a meeting with The Magic Dog.’ Cammy was listening very carefully. It was obvious that this little curious boy had loads of questions, but he kept silent not to ruin the story passage.

‘Yes, Cam, a big beautiful white Dog that has magic powers had asked me for a meeting. We discussed a lot of important magical things, such wizard fashion and,’ she made a pause because couldn’t think of anything else, ‘speed on the magic motorways,’ they just had street smarts at school, and she remembered motorways from there.

‘All these important adult wizardy things were discussed at the meeting. She was very happy to see me and wished me well. Oh, just remembered that she told me to tell you that she sees magic power in you. She doesn’t know what exactly, but I will meet her later to find out. Most importantly, do not tell anyone about your magic powers, or they will disappear. Me, you and the Magic Dog are the only ones, who are allowed to know. Got it?’

But he didn’t respond, he was so interested in the story that didn’t notice how he fell asleep. Mary tucked his little blanket in and went to the kitchen to get milk. It was completely dark, so she had to be very careful 0of where she was stepping not to wake Cammy up. When she reached the kitchen and poured milk into the cup, she laughed at herself for coming up with such a clever story. This was when the lights came back on.