It didn't take long for me to assimilate to the lifestyle of a baby. Eating, sleeping, pooping, and the occasional playing with objects that I could find on the ground, it seemed like a blessing.
But, while clinging to the wooden walls as I struggled to make my way around the house with the legs of a three year old, I had come to realize just how big and heavy the world is.
Doorknobs of which I could easily open back in my other life seemed to have stretched out miles above me. Bags of which my mother brings home filled with food or clothing felt like bricks as I attempted to lift them up. Even chairs seemed like skyscrapers to me.
Stopping in the middle of what would be both the entrance to the living room and kitchen, I closed my eyes and clapped my hands together.
- 'I say, to whatever higher being who's up there listening, God, Buddha, or even Santa Claus if they have one here, when I grow up, please, just please... make me 6 feet tall.
I take a deep breath.
- 'It's really all I ever want. It really is.'
"What are you doing Raiden?"
Startled by the sharp tone of a girl's voice, I dropped my hands and turned to the source of where the voice came from.
It was my older sister, Maria. She had long black hair that was straight like our dad's and beautiful eyes that resembled our mother's. And as she questioned me with a voice a bit too deep for a kid, I realized just how much she towered over me as a 7 year old.
"Um, I was just praying…" I replied in a nervous tone.
"Praying? Who did you learn it from?" she said bluntly. "Mommy and Daddy aren't religious. In fact, I don't think even Auntie Maggie and Uncle Ben are religious either."
I looked at her with tiny beads of sweat sliding down the side of my face.
"Did you learn it from people on the street?" she asked.
- 'This is my chance!'
"Yeah! I saw a man do it on the street when I was with Mom. When I asked her why he was doing it, she told me it was so that his prayers could be heard and his wishes could be granted!"
Maria looked at me, her eyebrows rising up in curiosity.
"And so you wanted to try it out for yourself?" Maria asked.
"Yeah!" I yelled back. "I mean, if I could have my wish granted to me with a prayer, why wouldn't I do it?"
Maria stared at me in a calm way that always seemed to creep me out.
- 'Aw crap.' I thought to myself, my sweat reaching down to my chin due to the hot weather and onesie I was wearing. - 'I think I might've gone too far with the lies.'
- 'But I gotta double down.'
Locking eyes with my sister Maria, I instantly closed my eyes and smiled, hoping that the look of a dumb, innocent child would form a shield that would protect myself from her serious gaze.
But I forgot that Maria was just a child, a child too naive to look through the lies that I had fed her.
"Hmm, you make a good point." she said as she looked up in thought with a finger on her chin.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't want to pray if you knew that your wish could be granted." Maria replied. "Anyways, I'm gonna go play with my friends, so if Mommy or Daddy asks for where I'm at, just tell them that I'm with Jenny and Pill."
"You got it!" I said, saluting to her with my hand to my forehead.
She walked past the living room and out the front door. When I heard the definite sound of the door shutting, I dropped to the ground, lying comfortably on the wood floor.
"Holy, crap." I said to myself. "I never knew having a conversation would be so exhausting."
I found myself flat on my back, looking at the wooden ceiling that seemed miles above me.
It's only been about three weeks since I've made my debut as the second son of the Smith's family, and to be honest, there really wasn't much going on.
I mean, I'm only three. The only thing I do is eat, sleep, and poop.
But it's strange being an adult in the body of a baby. Sometimes when I speak to Mom and Dad in complete sentences, it seems as if I was just speaking gibberish, while Maria would understand everything I say without fail.
"Maybe it's because she's a kid just like me." I said to myself as I pulled my shirt over my stomach.
In the next instance, the door swung open and Dad, like he always was, came rushing in with bags of food in his hands, brimming with energy.
"I'm home!" he cheerfully yelled out before putting the bags down on the dining table.
"Hey what are you doing on the floor Raiden? It's dirty."
Leaning my head back, I locked eyes with Mom, whose curly hair hung a few feet above my face.
"Um, nothing much." I said as I got off the ground.
Her hands made her way towards my armpits and I let out a tiny shriek as she carried me up to her chest.
"Do you not want Mommy to hold you?" she asked with a pouty face.
"No, no, no, it's not that," I said with exaggerated head and hand movements. "Just give me a warning next time before picking me up. Geez, I thought I was gonna get thrown or kidnapped."
She walked around the house with me in hand, pacing back and forth before asking me where Maria was.
"Oh, she said she went to go play with Jenny and Pill." I said.
Mom chuckled.
"Pill... What kind of a mother would name her kid Pill." she snickered. Her laughs were contagious and I soon let out a light chuckle alongside her.
"Come on now," Dad said. "I think Pill's a lovely name."
"Pill? Seriously?" Mom asked before bursting into quiet laughter, her feet lightly stomping on the floor.
I exploded into laughter alongside her.
"Aw man, you're definitely going to hell for that but that was nice Mom."
Laughing together for a little longer, our heads rubbing against one another, the two of us stopped laughing as Dad sighed.
"Come on you two, let's not make fun of someone else's name," he said. "And plus, Mina, isn't it about time we enroll Raiden into some sort of daycare or school?"
The sudden shift of the conversation brought my attention towards the topic.
"School? Daycare?" I asked.
"Oh, it's a place that your sister and many others go to, where you make friends and lear-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." I said, interrupting her. "I was asking more of where these schools are at."
"Where, you said?" Mom asked.
I immediately nodded.
"The one that your sister goes to isn't too far from here." she said, looking up in thought. "Just a few blocks down the street and you'll be able to see it."
"But Vinny," Mom asked, "Hasn't the school year already started?"
"Only for like 2 days, I'm sure it won't make a huge difference, Mina." Dad said as he finished unpacking the food from the bags.
"Well, if you say so. Oh, let me help you with that." she said.
Slowly and gently, Mom put me down to help out Dad, leaving me standing still in thought about school.