Chapter 1: Into another Yun-verse

               I felt warmth on my face, and the back of my eyelids turned orange. The sun was outside. It was a new day! I got up. My sister, Abry, was still asleep. I crept out of the room to mommy’s.

               She was asleep, too. “Mommy, you have to get up!”

               “I don’t have to.” She replied, though her voice was grumblier than usual. “It’s 5:30am. That’s early. It’s way too early to be awake.”

               “But I awake!”

               “I can see that.” She sat up and stretched. “Do you want to lie down and watch a show downstairs?”

               “No.”

               “Then, do you want to go back to bed?”

               “No.”

               “Well, Elizabeth, you have to pick one.” She slid over the side of the bed and got up.

               “I want things that go!”

               “You want to go?” She scrunched her forehead. She didn’t understand me again. “Oh – you want to watch the show about things that go. O.K.”

               She walked with me downstairs and put on a show about boats and vehicles. I was glad that she understood me this time – some mornings I would have to tell her five times before she knew what I wanted!

               “Mommy’s going back to sleep.” She said. “Do you want some fruit snacks before I go?”

               “No. I O.K.” I reassured her, and she went back upstairs.

               When my show was done, I did want fruit snacks. But mommy was not around. I opened the cupboard, I could do that myself, and took a pack. But I couldn’t open it myself.

               “Mommy –“ I walked into her room again. “Mommy, I need fruitsnacks. You have to open them.”

               “I don’t have to.” She sat up. Her voice was sort of sighy. “But I will. Remember I asked you if you wanted me to open them before and you said no?”

               “I need now. Here.” I gave her the pack.

               “I know, you only want them when you want them.” She opened the package and gave it back to me. “It’s still early. Mommy really needs to sleep, or she’ll be cranky. Can I sleep now?”

               “Show done.” I told her. “I want Fairy.”

               “Only If you lie down to watch it.” Mommy came downstairs and tucked me in on the couch with a pillow and blanket. Some mornings I fell back asleep, but today I was awake. Mommy asked if I wanted anything to drink – water, milk, juice, even chocolate milk, but I said no. I wasn’t thirsty. She put on a show for me and went back to bed.

               But when the show ended, I was bored. I hadn’t fell asleep. Maybe I could do some puzzles? I went to the table where my puzzles were. We’d played with them the night before. They were special puzzles made by grandpa that had colorful dinosaurs. I was only supposed to play with one at a time, but how could I pick? Soon I had several out.

Puzzles were tricky. Sometimes I thought things fit that didn’t, and sometimes I couldn’t find a piece to fit at all. My dinosaur was looking strange. Maybe mommy could help.

“Mommy, you need help me.” I woke her up again.

“Honey.” She buried her face under a pillow for a moment before coming back up. “I guess it is time to get up now.”

“You need help me.”

“All right. Mom needs to get ready. I’ll be downstairs soon, then I will help.”

“O.K.” I left to go wait. But then I heard crying, loud crying. It was Klara crying. She’s my littlest sister, she’s a baby.

Mommy came downstairs holding her. “I’ll help you soon.” She said to me. “But mommy has to  feed Klara first. She’s hungry. Are you hungry?”

“No.” I said, and went back to my puzzles. I didn’t want to wait, but mommy was always 

stuck on the couch when she fed Klara. And I wasn’t hungry yet. I was, however, thirsty! What did I want? I looked in the fridge; I could do that myself. There was a pickle jar but no pickles. But there was pickle juice! I took the jar. It was big and it was heavy, but I could carry it myself. I couldn’t open the jar. What did I need? A knife! I opened the drawer and took a butter knife. I tapped on the lid like I had seen mommy do once. It wouldn’t open.

I took the knife and jar to mommy. “I want Pickle juice.” I informed her.

“Pickle juice? O.K.” She smiled, “But can you wait?”

“No, I do myself.” I tried the knife and jar trick again, but it did not work.

“Oh!” She cried, “No, don’t try that yourself. Here.” She reached over with one hand and

opened the jar for me. “Now, go get a cup. We need something to put it in.”

               “Unicorn water bottle!” I got it for her, and she shifted the baby and poured it in. I drank my pickle juice, so zappy!, while she finished feeding Klara and then put her in a little chair.

               “All right.” She wiggled her shoulders and stretched her head side to side. “You needed help?”

               “You have to help me with puzzles!” I pointed to my work.

               “Oh, dear.” She looked them over. “It seems you’ve mushed some together, haven’t you?” She took a minute to sort them all out. “But you got a lot more together than yesterday. Good work. Grandpa would be proud.”

“I got dinosaur!”

“Part of one, anyway.” She separated two halves of my picture. “You got the two sides, see? But the sides don’t go together. You need the middle.”

               “Oh.” I took another piece and tried to fit it into the new space. “It not working!”

               “See how that piece has an edge?” Mommy pointed, “The line?” She rubbed my finger along the side. “The part that is strait shows that this is an edge piece. Look at the picture to find which edge.”

               It was kind of purple, so I put it next to another purple piece. It didn’t work.

               “The edge is the outside of the picture. You are trying to put it in the middle.” She tapped the top of the picture. “It will go here or here. Which do you think?”

               “There!” I turned it a little and it went in.

               “Good job.” She patted me on the head.

               I looked for a new piece to fit, but couldn’t find one. “Oh no, where next piece?”

               “Good question.” She looked with me. “There! They fell on the floor under the table. Do you see?”

               “There pieces! You have to get them.”

               “I can’t get them, they are under the table.” She said, “Mommy is too big. You can get the pieces because you are small.”

               “I can get pieces?” There were things I could do that mommy couldn’t? I crouched down and crawled under the table. There were one, two, three pieces. I grabbed them and crawled out, handing them to mommy.

               “Thank you!” She smiled and put the pieces next to the puzzle.

               If I’d gotten the pieces mommy couldn’t reach, maybe I could do the puzzle myself!

               “Where does this piece go?” Mommy was having trouble. She couldn’t find the right spot?

               “Sideways,” I said, and pointed. She had the picture wrong.

               “Oh, of course.” She put the piece in. “Clever girl!”

               “But where are pieces?” I asked when we put the three from the table in.

               “You’re right.” She said, “There are ones missing. They were there last night. Where could they be?”

               We looked for a bit but we couldn’t find them. Klara started crying, and Abry made kicking-on-crib noises from upstairs.

“Sorry, sweetheart, you’ll have to work on a different puzzle for now. Mommy has to go.”

She was gone again. I started a new puzzle, but got stuck. My pickle juice was gone, maybe chocolate milk would be good? I got the jug from the fridge. It was big and it was heavy, but I could do it myself. I tried opening the lid. It came open! I did it myself! I got a cup. I looked at the jug. Could I pour it myself?

“Oh, no.” Mom came in and laughed. She poured it for me into the cup. “You aren’t quite big enough for that just yet. And remember, it’s polite to ask first.”

“Please?” I asked.

“Better late than not at all.” She laughed again and put the jug back in the fridge. “I’m making breakfast for all of you. Do you want anything?”

“White eggs.” I asked.

“Fried eggs it is.”

“No, not fried eggs, yuk! White eggs.” I insisted.

“I know what you want, honey - Sunny side up, not well done. So the whites are actually white, not brown like your dad’s. They are still fried eggs.”

“No, not fried, that’s too easy! White eggs!” I was almost crying. She didn’t understand.

“It’s O.K. I’ll make you white eggs.”

She did them just like I liked them, with the white outside and the runny yoke. Maybe she did understand me after all. Mom gave Abry some leftover waffles, and as they ate I went to play.

I grabbed some stacking toys and sat on the couch. I laid down. I pulled the blanket up. I was a bit tired. But these toys were fun, I didn’t want to fall asleep. I hummed to myself for a bit. I drew in my sketchbook.

Eventually mommy came over and asked if I wanted to finish the puzzles now. Of course!

We chose one with all the pieces, mommy checked, and put it together. There were so many things mommy wanted me to learn – edges, sides, corners, knobs, pockets – I couldn’t understand it all. But it was fun to do it together while Klara napped and Abry played on her own.

“It was nice of grandpa to give us these puzzles.” Mommy said as we were almost done. “You had a good idea to get them out to play with.”

“Yes, play with dinosaur puzzles!” I’d spotted them the day before in the garage and asked mommy to get them down.

“We are almost done.”

“Last piece!” I agreed. It was clear it went in the gap, but I still had to turn it to line up the knobs and pockets. “It went in!” I cried in triumph.

The picture moved! “Swirly?” I asked.

“No, it’s not supposed to do that.” My mom put a hand on my shoulder.

“Dinosaur roar?” I asked as it turned to look at us.

“Is it a digital trick?” My mom poked it.

Everything went wobbly hazy.

I blinked. “Puzzle gone!” I said.

“That’s not all.” Mommy said. We both looked around in wonder. The table was lower and piled with strange fruit. The room was larger, and purple. Mommy was still mommy, but looked different, like one of my cartoons. Her eyes were really big. Abry was playing with blocks a few feet from us as if nothing at all had changed. Baby Klara just stared at everything. But then, she always did a lot of staring.

“Not our house?” I asked.

“We are in someone else’s house, yes.” Mommy slowly replied, “Possibly someone else’s universe.”

“Yun-verse? Like Yun-corn?”

“Like – like the show you like where the girl goes into a book and enters a different world. Maybe we went through the Puzzle to a different land.”

“Puzzle land!” I suggested.

“Maybe.” Mommy gave me a hug. “Just stay close to mommy for now, O.K.? I’ll try to find out what is going on, where we are.”

She walked across the round room to a large wooden door, and I followed close behind her. She seemed calm, so I stayed calm.  “I’m just going to take a peek outside,” she said. She reached a hand out for the handle.

Before she could open it, the door swung in towards us and a wobbly creature came in.

“Welcome!” The strange dinosaur-robot-animal-block-iguana-troll said. “We don’t get many visitors around here, this is a first for me. Make yourselves at home. Can I make you a cup of tea?”

Mommy was speechless, so I answered for her. “We have tea with cream in teacup?”

The drabbit smiled. “As you wish, I’ll just go put on a pot.”