Cool Aunt

Cool Aunt

I’d like to think there’s an unspoken general rule that if a woman who doesn’t have kids, has a sister who has kids, the aforementioned woman must do her utmost best to be the most fashionable, the most sophisticated, the most coolest, trendiest, funnest aunt to those kids. The kind of aunt who doesn’t care that ‘funnest’ isn’t a word. I take this rule seriously.

My nephew and niece were born within six minutes of each other, both perfect bundles of baby. The moment they looked up at me with their deep, dark brown eyes, I knew I’d do anything for them. Little baby Matt, baby Kat, and Auntie Nat. We’re the cutest trio in the world, and we get together once a week to prove it.

“Woah!” My sister’s face barely disguised her disapproval as she stood back to let me in the door before I could use my key. “Are you sure you’re up for the park today? Didn’t you have that bachelorette party last night?”

I rolled my eyes, but she missed it since I kept my sunglasses on. The room spun slightly, I put my hand against the wall to brace myself. I was pretty hung over. Still, I waved my hand to dismiss her concerns.

“I did, but how could I possibly miss popsicle and playground day?” I tried to grin, but it came out as a wan smile. Shrugging, I elaborated.

“You know I told those two I’d only ever skip out on our time if I have to go out of town. I’m sure they both know I’m here, they can see my car from their window,” I jerked my chin to the right, indicating to my place just down the street. Nausea rolled over me, but I pushed it down. Cool aunts don’t flake on their niblings just because they hit it too hard the night before!

“Let me at least get you a Tylenol,” with a tsk my sister headed to the bathroom medicine cabinet, just as Matt and Kat rushed downstairs to hug me.

“Auntie Nat, Auntie Nat, I lost a tooth, look!” Matt poked his tongue through the hole his missing tooth had made and wiggled it at me.

“Well I picked you flowers, and it’s better than losing an icky tooth!” Kat pushed her brother aside, jealousy thick in her voice, her lip quivering.

“Both are great things,” I quickly reached out to tickle Matt before he could complain about the shove, then Kat to get her mind off of being left behind in the milestone department. Normally the twins were the best of friends, inseparable. Matt doing something without Kat, even something he couldn’t control, was clearly bothering my niece.

“You’ll catch up to Matt soon, kiddo, you guys have twenty baby teeth to lose, did you know that?” Being a dental hygienist, I imparted this bit of wisdom with an air of gravitas. The twins both gasped.

“Will one start falling out every day?” Kat looked askance at her brother, as if Matt was about to become some toothless monster.

I laughed. “Only if you don’t brush them like you’re supposed to.”

Hoping my statement instilled just the right amount of fear a kid should have to stick to their healthy habits, I downed the pills my sister brought me, took each kid by the hand, and headed to the bodega on the way to the park.

“Good afternoon, Amalane,” we politely greeted the ancient woman who had been serving us our treats since we started this little tradition.

“Is it?” She asked in her thick accent, uncharacteristically tense.

“Well… we think so, right Matt? Right Kat?” I hoped the kids’ nodding angelic faces might snap Amalane out of her weird mood, but she just harrumphed.

“Something is off, something too thinning to make it ‘good’. Mark my words, there is a thinning today, a lifted veil. My grandmother would have been able to put her finger on it, but I’m too far from it, too disconnected from my roots…” the old lady kept muttering, even as she rang up our popsicles, blue for me, green for both Matt and Kat. She didn’t stop even as we made our way to the door.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“See you next week!” I called, wondering if she was going to be alright. Her words hadn’t really made a lot of sense.

At the park, we sat in the grass and ate our snack. The sun broke from behind the clouds and I winced, my headache returning tenfold, even behind my sunglasses, the day was too bright. I caught eyes with a jogger who gave me a surprisingly angry look. He must have been on a late mile, because his whole body was shimmering with sweat.

“Look! Mushrooms!” Kat exclaimed, breaking the weird connection between the man and I.

“Don’t eat them,” this motherly advice came automatically, years of watching the two of them put anything from dirt to ladybugs in their mouths and having to pry it out had made me wary.

“I wouldn’t,” Kat pouted in a way that told me she would. I gave her a stern look and turned back to the angry jogger, but he was nowhere to be found. I twisted around behind me, but there was nothing down the path. He must have turned back the way he had been coming, nobody is that fast.

“Will you push me on the swings?” Matt asked me, holding up his popsicle stick to show he was finished.

“Sure. Coming with me and Matt, little Kat?” I turned to my niece, waiting for the rhyme I loved whenever I asked one of these two a question.

“I wanna stay by the mushroom circle, Auntie Nat,” Kat grinned up at me as I stood.

“If you eat any, we’ll have a spat,” I wanted to leave it at the silly rhyme, but I turned serious. For some reason the fungus was making me nervous. “Really, don’t eat any.”

“I’ll just make a hat… what’s a spat?” Kat’s dark brown eyes looked up at me innocently.

“A fight. We won’t though, because you’re a good listener,” I took Matt’s hand and headed to the swing passing by a woman who was sitting on a nearby bench.

“What an adorable matched set!” She smiled down at Matt, who shyly smiled back. I had to blink several times. Between the hangover, the sun, and getting up too quickly from the ground, this woman looked shimmery too. Her overstuffed backpack also gave her the uncanny look of having translucent wings. I pushed my sunglasses to the top of my head to see better, and the backpack shrunk back to normal size. Just a trick of the light.

“Thanks, they’re my niece and nephew,” not wanting to get into a long conversation with a stranger, even a really pretty one, I gave a slight wave and continued on to the swings.

I pushed Matt until he was high enough, then sat down on the swing next to him and pumped my legs.

“Kat, this is really fun, do you wanna join us?” I called, figuring the little girl had to be done with her popsicle by now. “Kat?” I turned my attention to where I had left my niece.

The grass under the tree where we had been sitting was empty.

“Kat? Kat!” Matt, did you see where your sister went?” I jumped from the swing, slightly twisting my ankle in my haste to get down.

“No,” Matt’s lower lip quivered, my worry bleeding onto him. I took a deep breath and forced a shrug.

“C’mon, she’s probably at the slides,” I pulled him off the swing and took a firm grip on his hand. I looked over at the bench to ask the woman from earlier if she had seen which way Kat had wandered, but she was gone. I tried to remember what she looked like in case I needed to file a police report, but beyond being pretty, no other attributes of the woman came to mind. I brushed off the feeling of dread.

“Kat?” “Catherine Joy!” I used her full name to show just how serious I was as I rushed from tube slide to tube slide. Nothing.

My hands were shaking as I climbed the ladder of the playground to get a better look as to where my tiny girl could be. I tried to remember what it was she had been wearing, but my mind drew a blank. Something orange?

“Ma’am, have you seen a little girl, five, but small for her age, blonde hair, it was in braids,” I call frantically to the lady I see sitting on a nearby bench watching a lean boy go across the monkeybars over the top of her magazine.

“No, but I can help you look,” the lady sets down Vanity and calls to her son. “Jaxon, stay here, I’m going to help this lady find her daughter.”

“Is that her?” A nearby kid calls, and I whirl around.

There she is, walking from behind the tree we had been sitting at, cool as a cucumber. I smother the sob threatening to break free as I run to her, Matt following on my heels.

“Kat! Baby, didn’t you hear me calling for you?” I pull her close, falling to my knees to hold her tight, grateful for my sunglasses so she can’t see my eyes brimming with tears.

“Aunt Natalie, let go, I was just playing,” my niece pulls away, her bright blue eyes meeting mine. “There’s nothing to be worried about, it’s a playground.”

I stand, nodding, trying to pull myself back together. She’s safe, and all is well. There’s no reason for me to feel so unsettled and out of sorts, my niece is back, she hadn’t even gone far. What had felt like an eternity had only been a matter of minutes.

It is weird that she’s never called me Natalie ever before in her life though…