Page 52 of The Toymaker
Trig knocked when they’d finished, and after Riju said he could come in, he opened the door. “What are you doing?”
“Drawing. He showed me how to make a puppy.” Riju held up the parchment where he’d done a passable puppy since Kit had shown him how to do it bit by bit.
“Cute.” Trig raised an eyebrow. “You let him in your room?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, okay. I wanted to ask if you’d like to have a meat and spinach pie from the bakery for dinner.”
“That’d be good.”
“Both of you can watch the shop while I go out and get it. I’m leaving in about fifteen minutes.”
“Okay.”
Trig closed the door, and Kit stretched. “Ohhh, meat and spinach pie. I can’t wait.”
“Me neither. The bakery here never puts nasty onions in them either. I hate onions.”
“Me too.”
Riju inched over to get on top of him and went limp. Kit pulled out a long piece of his hair to appreciate how red and soft it was.
“Elira, your hair is so pretty. I could almost be jealous.”
“Why almost?”
“I don’t think I’d want to comb it out every day.”
“It’s easier now since I do it every day. It used to have a lot of tangles because nobody ever taught me how to properly brush my hair. I used to use my fingers which is kind of difficult, and I had an old comb for a while, but I couldn’t keep my hair neat. If you keep it up every single day, it’s not so hard.”
Kit squinted as he kept playing with the piece. Even his fake Uncle had made sure he combed his hair. Before that, his Mother had taught him. “Why didn’t your parents teach you?”
“My parents didn’t like doing much with me.” Riju was silent for a moment. “They said I wasn’t worth bothering with because I was too stupid and brainless.”
How could they have thought such a thing? If they’d bothered to try, they’d have seen he wasn’t dumb because he clearly kept his hair clean and brushed once someone taught him. Didn’t everybody have to be taught those basic skills? Kit wrapped his arms around Riju to squeeze him. “Everybody has to learn, and they should have taught you. You’re not stupid at all.”
“I know I'm not stupid, but I’m not…like everyone else. My head’s messed up because I don’t know how to act like other people, and my parents blamed each other for it.”
“Huh? You're not messed up, and that doesn’t make any sense. Were they like my parents? My Father drank like a fish.”It was why Kit avoided getting drunk, and alcohol definitely seemed to make some people think and do stupid shit.
Riju sat up. “I don’t remember him drinking much so it wasn’t them fighting after a bunch of ale or anything. They were always bickering with each other. I’m part Finkin. Do you know where that’s at?”
“It’s an island way out to the east.”
“Father originally moved here to work with a cousin, and he later met my Mother. Mother said Father was stupid for growing up in a backwater island village, and he said she was a stupid city woman.” Riju rolled his eyes. “She said Father and his family probably kissed pigs on the cheek too.”
Kit couldn’t help but chuckle. “What? That’s a strange insult.”
“People from some places like Rowland, South Forest, and Finkin have a thing of kissing people on the cheek as a greeting or for certain things like if they apologize. Erm, in Rowland, I think it’s actually only for apologies. She meant that Father was such a stupid village guy, he’d kiss a dirty pig too.”
“Oh.” Kit hadn’t known it was a Finkin thing too.
“That was some of the more tame fights they had,” said Riju. “I look more like my Mother because I have her hair. I’m paler than my Father was. He used to say I was probably another man’s baby even though I had his eyes, and they’d really start screaming at each other whenever he said so.”
Kit raised his eyebrows as he sat up. “But why?”
Riju shrugged and looked down. “They hated each other and me too because I wasn’t born right in my head. Father also said I couldn’t be his kid because I was retarded. Mother said I’d fit right into a stupid village out in Finkin and kiss pigs all day. He called her a stuck-up city bitch, and…I don't understand why they got married in the first place. I guess they thought they liked each other or things were different before they had me.”
