Page 39 of The Doctor's Surprise Family

Oli’s face fell. “Can’t you and me just play? We only just started.”

I glanced over at Claire and tried to think how she’d handle this. At the aquarium, she’d offered him choices, penguins or Playland. A snack or the gift shop.

“Your mom says you’re an artist,” I said, feeling awkward. “Do you want to draw, maybe? Or make paper planes?”

“We can’t make paper planes,” he said. “Miss P says they’re dangerous.”

I wasn’t sure who Miss P was — some teacher, maybe — but she had a point. No paper planes. “So, would you draw me a picture?”

“A picture of what?”

“I don’t know, uh…” I tried to think. “The coolest thing you can think of. Something awesome.”

Oli frowned for a moment, then he jumped up. He ran off to wherever he kept his toys, then came charging back with a huge box of crayons.

“We have to go in the kitchen,” he said. “Because, wax in the carpet.”

“Good thinking.” I stood, careful not to disturb Claire. Oli was already setting up at the table, arranging his crayons around a fresh sheet of paper.

“These ones are new,” he said, and held up a green one. “Sparkle crayons. If they go in the wash, they makeallyour clothes sparkle.”

I winced at the thought of how he’d figuredthatout, then snickered at the thought of Claire dressed all sparkly. We’d got glitter-bombed once at some downmarket club, collateraldamage from a bachelorette bash. I’d buzzed my head and showered off the glitter, but Claire had been shedding sparkles for weeks. It had stuck in her hair like stars in the night — pretty, I thought, but she couldn’t stand it.

“I know what to draw.” Oli lined up his crayons, red, peach, and gray, and I gave him the thumbs-up.

“Can’t wait to see.”

I watched, fascinated, as Oli launched in. He drew a gray triangle, then a gray square, then a gray stick man with a round, moon-like face. Then he added a face to his gray triangle, with two big round eyes and a shock of black hair. He added arms and legs, then he grabbed his red crayon.

“Your favorite color?”

“Yeah,” Oli said, but he didn’t look up. He bit his lip and his brow furrowed like he was debating some question. Then he went in hard with the red, scribbling it everywhere, big swoops and whirls.

“What’s all that red, bud?”

“That’s all the guts.”

I did abuhface. “What?”

“The guts. Just a minute.” Oli drew a red heart, then he drew another. Then he held up his paper. “Pretty cool, right?”

“Awesome,” I said. “Uh, what’s, uh…” Would it be rude to ask what it was? And why those two stick figures were all draped in guts? Had he somehow snuck into an R-rated movie? Was this something Claire should be worried about?

“It’s you and Mom,” he said. “See, that’s the table, and that’s the patient, and those are his guts, and you’re fixing his heart.”

I grinned, relieved. “We’re doing an operation together?”

“Yeah. You’re making him better. You said draw the coolest thing, and that’s saving someone.”

I kind of doubted that, with that many guts. But it made sense now, and it was pretty cute. Pretty flattering too, that he thought I was cool.

“Should this go on the fridge? You got a spare magnet?”

“Uh-uh,” said Oli. “This one’s for you.”

“You mean, I can keep it?”

“You can put it on your fridge. That way, you’ll see it whenever you eat.”

---