Page 38 of Watercolor Skulls

She nods at me, tears in her eyes. I grab her hand. “It’s okay Rachel. It’s just a window.”

“It’s not that, it’s just…Jackson has ADHD and…”

“It’s hard,” I finish for her.

She nods, fighting back tears. Rachel bends down in front of Jackson. “You be good for Lily, okay?”

He shakes his head as he tugs at my hand, pulling me outside. “If anyone wants to join us, we will be out back,” I yell over my shoulder as the little guy pulls me out the door

Jackson and I drag a few windows out and I crack open my paints. “What is one of your favorite things?” I ask as he hops around me.

“Bugs. I like bugs. Black ones, yellow ones, red ones…” he stops to watch a bird swoop down in a tree. “Did you see that?” he asks, but before I can respond he is sticking his finger in bright red paint.

I laugh, pulling him down gently onto the ground with me. “Since you already got paint on your fingers I’m going to show you something cool.” I take his finger and press it to the glass.

“It’s just a red dot,” he grumbles.

“Just wait.” I take some black paint and turn his fingerprint into a ladybug.

His eyes go wide. “More,” he says, pressing his finger against the glass again.

“Okay, we’ve got the ladybugs.” I wipe his finger off on a paper towel. “How about caterpillars? Do you like them?”

“I like all bugs.”

We spend the next hour creating bees, butterflies, lighting bugs, dragonflies, and flowers all out of his fingerprints. I add some grass and a bright sun in the corner of the pane.

When his painting is done, I prop it up for him. He scrunches his nose. “My mom won’t like the bugs, but she will sure like the flowers,” he says, tipping his head back and forth as I hold the window up for his inspection.

“After it dries you can take it home,” I tell him. “It’s a really cool painting.”

“You can hang it in your house since I broke yours.” He drops his eyes to the ground, his cheeks turning pink.

“I would love to hang your painting in my house.”

He peeks at me through the hair that has fallen over his eyes. “Really?

“Absolutely. I’m going to hang it right were my old one was. This one is way better.”

He smiles brightly at this.

“Do you have a bug catcher at home?” I ask.

“What’s a bug catcher?”

“Oh, every bug lover needs one. Let’s go in and get my tools and I bet we can build one.”

He jumps around, following me inside. We grab everything we need, stopping to borrow some leftover scraps from the new wood flooring.

Once outside we get to work. He adorably sticks his tongue out in concentration to nail two pieces of wood together.

We find some old screen in the shed to keep the bugs safely inside our new bug catcher and then I let him paint it. He knows what to do now and gets right to work, dipping his fingers in paint to create all the different bugs.

When he’s done he smiles proudly. “Now I just need to find some real bugs!” he exclaims.

“Lunch time!” Candice yells out the back door.

I look at Jackson and poke him in the tummy. “After lunch we will go on a great bug expedition. Maybe we can bring Billie Rose with us.”

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