Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up

[start_a_rumpus]

There are drums beating out in the jungle. It's the native people of the island and they've come to reclaim what's theirs. All night and all day they've been playing and yelling and threatening Max and everyone who has taken over this place. Boom, boom, boom. Max can hear them even through the walls of the compound. He slinks down the halls, and

Comments

[curiously_cora]

Coraline moves to one side as she hears small feet thundering behind her and past her. Watching curiously as a Max shaped blur crawled under the kitchen table looking pretty thoroughly miserable. Peering beneath the table Coraline looked at Max before crawling in- ow, her head, with him.

"We Knights of King Max are supposed to be stern, serious people with stern serious faces like this." Coraline said pulling a serious grim and quite frankly, ridiculously face at Max. "But I suppose seeing as you're my King and all then I can do this... but you're never to tell anyone? Or else my reputation will be ruined."

Coraline pulled Max close and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "You alright Max?"

[start_a_rumpus]

"My sister left this here but I can't find her," he whispers, letting himself lean against her just a little bit. "It's hers so it means she was here but she left without me."

[curiously_cora]

"Maybe she didn't." Coraline said tugging him closer. She doesn't let go just yet. Even boys, ever Kings need hugs. "You remember how I told you about that bad place? The island gave that place to me, it didn't mean the Other Mother was here but for a while I was scared she was. Sometimes it gives us gifts from home, sometimes nice ones like Cat and sometimes bad ones like that place."

Coraline looked at his thing and smiled. It was nice. "Maybe she's not here but if you'd like we can go check. Everywhere even the Helter Skelter, I mean if I just arrived on an island I'd check out the big fun swirly slide first."

[start_a_rumpus]

"She wouldn't be there, she's sixteen and grownup," he murmurs, trying to smooth out the smashed edges. "I looked all over. Why would I have this if she's not here? That's stupid."

[goingtodorking]

She stands and watches him for a long moment before she gets down on her knees and starts to crawl under the table. Her blond hair hangs in her eyes. She tilts her head and studies him for a moment. She knows what this place is like; she knows what it does, sometimes.

"What did it do to you?" she asks, quietly.

[start_a_rumpus]

"Nothing," he fires back, hunching in on himself. "It's my sister's, but she's not here. She left me...again. I looked everywhere."

He unfolds his hand just enough for the newly smashed heart frame to be visible.

[goingtodorking]

"Oh," says Karen, a little quiet breath as she reaches out and touches the very edges of the paper frame with careful fingers. "It's probably like my dinosaur book. She wasn't..." She bites her lip. "You want them to come with it, but they don't."

[start_a_rumpus]

"Why not?" he asks quietly, frowning down at his hands. "It's hers so why isn't she here, too? No one else could have had it?"

[jdick]

"Whoa, kid, where's the fire?" Joe asked as Max nearly ran into his legs. He shifted a little, glancing down and then frowned when he caught sight of Max's face. The kid looked fucking upset about something and, although Joe knew how the island could be, he was getting fucking sick of it treating a kid this way. It was like nothing could go right.

"You okay?" he asked.

[start_a_rumpus]

"My sister, Joe, my sister!" Max pants, thrusting the slightly crumpled heart up towards him. "I can't find her. She should be here! But I looked all over."

[jdick]

Looking down at the heart, Joe's frown deepened and he shook his head. "She's probably not here, Max. This place, it... sometimes it gives us shit from home. Usually something that'll really fuck with us. Maybe make us think someone's here who isn't."

And that was what it was doing now, he thought. Which was too fucked up.

[start_a_rumpus]

"But," he starts, trailing off as he tries to make sense of that. "But I made this for her and then I smashed it but it's all back together, now. So that means she fixed it and brought it for me," he insists, stomping his foot.

[prodigaljaybird]

A moment later he's hauled out again, Jason lifting Max with two hands beneath his armpits, up and and up until they're eye to eye.

Jason's gaze flicks to the heart and back again, to red cheeks and even redder eyes. "Who's Claire?"

[start_a_rumpus]

Max had tried kicking pretty ineffectually when he was hauled up and now just dangles, squirming as sorrow mixes with fierce, fierce embarrassment at Jason seeing him cry.

"No one, let me go!" he demands, trying to cover the girly, stupid heart up.

[prodigaljaybird]

"Okay," says Jason after a long moment of merely staring back. "But if you run, I'm just going to catch you again," he promises.

Slowly, he lowers Max to the floor.

[start_a_rumpus]

Max considers that for a moment, pulling the heart into his chest. "This is my sister's," he finally says, uncovering it. "I smashed it back home but it's here now and I can't find her. I looked all over."

[polly_okeefe]

It's pretty easy to find Max. His cries lead me directly to the kitchen table. I grimaced. Max seemed a resilient kid, but he was still all alone. Being away from home was hard enough for all of us. For him?

I got on my knees and peered under the table. "Hey," I said softly. I opened my arms in case he wanted a hug. "Hey. You okay?"

[start_a_rumpus]

"I'm fine!" he fires back, curling in on himself. He doesn't want a hug and he doesn't want a girl to see him cry. "This place is stupid and I hate it and I hate everything and everyone."

[polly_okeefe]

I lowered my hands, but I stayed where I was. Nothing was going to make Max uncurl unless he wanted to, but I still felt I had to be there. Sometimes being there is all you can do.

I smiled, a little sadly. "I know the feeling. Sometimes I feel 'fine' just like you, too."

[start_a_rumpus]

"You don't know how I'm feeling," Max argues, trying to back further under the table. "You should just go away. You don't know anything."