My gaze went to Mom’s. This wasn’t like Easton. “Why did you push her down? That wasn’t nice.”
“She wasn’t nice cuz she called me a liar. I’m not a liar, Mommy. I do have rainbows and oonicorns in my room.”
“Yes, you do, but sometimes it’s best to walk away. Bonnie was maybe jealous that she didn’t have rainbows and unicorns. I have an idea. Why don’t you draw Bonnie a picture of your room and tell her you’re sorry tomorrow?”
Her head swung back and forth. “I don’t wanna.”
Mom offered her advice. “Easton, sometimes we do things to be nice and not because we want to.”
“But then she’ll be even meaner when she sees it.”
“You don’t know that,” I told her.
Mom came up with a great idea. “Hey, Easton, maybe you should invite Bonnie over for a play date so she can see your rainbows and unicorns for herself.”
An expression of horror appeared on my daughter’s face. Then it turned into a scowl. It was pretty comical. This little Bonnie must be really something. But it made me wonder if she was going through something at home. “Easton, maybe Bonnie needs a friend.”
“She don’t have any cuz she’s mean.”
“Maybe if you’re nice to her and invite her over to play, she’ll start being nice,” Mom said. “Sometimes kids get mean when they don’t have anyone to play with. Imagine if you didn’t have any play buddies. It wouldn’t be very much fun.”
“That’s right, Easton, and in the meantime, you can draw Bonnie a picture.”
The biggest grin stretched across her face as her eyes brightened. “Can Boppy take a picture so I can show her?”
“Let’s call him.” I speed-dialed Dad and, when he answered, put Easton on.
“Boppy!”
“Hey, sugar peanut. What’s up?”
“Mommy said you can come over and take a picture of my rainbows and oonicorns so I can show Bonnie so she won’t call me a liar no more.”
“How about you hand the phone over to your mom?”
Her hand stuck out with my phone in it.
His voice boomed into my ear. “What’s going on, English?”
“Trouble at school again and we need your help.”
“I’ll be over, and you can explain then.”
“One other question. Can you teach Easton how to better control herself when she encounters these situations?”
A heavy silence hung between us until I heard him sigh. “Under one condition.”
“What’s that?” I was very curious now.
“You take a self-defense class.”
“Jeez, Dad.”
“I’m serious. It would’ve come in handy when you faced Stuart the other night.”
He had a point. A very strong one, indeed. “I’ll think about it.”
Easton bounced around until Dad showed up. Her excitement was out of control. “Boppy! Are you gonna teach me how to punch Bonnie?”
“What? Where did you get that idea?” Dad glanced at me and wore a furious expression. I only shrugged because I hadn’t said a word about that to Easton.
“Because she was mean to me,” Easton said in a glum tone.
“Come here, peanut.” He patted the cushion on the sofa next to him. When she crawled up there, he went on. “First, never ever punch anyone unless you’re defending yourself and have no other choice. Do you know what that means?”
“No.” We were back to the protruding lower lip as her excitement fizzled.
“If you go around punching people, you’ll be no worse than that mean boy who caused you all those problems. You never want to be a bully. Do you understand?”
“I think so. If Bonnie hits me, I can hit her back, but not before.”
Dad blew out a breath. “Let’s not talk about hitting anyone, okay? The best thing to do would be to get Mrs. Leonard. I can teach you how to stop someone if they try to hit you though.”
Her head slanted as she stared at Dad. “I don’t know, Boppy. What if he’s mean and scary?” It made me question if this had to do with what had happened to me. “Mommy, can I take those fight classes?”
“Fight classes?”
“Yeah, like on the TV?”
“I think she means martial arts,” Dad said. “It might not be a bad idea. They teach self-defense and not how to actually fight.”
As I thought about it, I decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the two of us. “You know what, I’ll check into it and maybe we’ll both take them. Self-defense classes. Dad, how does that sound?”
Dad nodded his agreement.
“Yay! Mommy and me will learn how to fight for real.”
“Oh, boy.” She had taken this the wrong way. “No, Easton, we are going to learn how to defend ourselves, not fight.”
She skipped around the room and paid no attention to me.
The doorbell rang and she hurried to answer it. I had to break her of this habit, but didn’t know how, short of punishing her.
“Easton. Freeze!” It was a trick they used in school and she came to a dead stop. “What did I tell you about opening the door?”
Out came that lower lip. This time it trembled. “I’m not s’posed to.”
“That’s right. And why?”
“Stranger danger.”
“Good girl. Now go sit down for a second.”
The camera indicated that Tristian was on the porch, so I let him in.
“I hope I’m not interrupting?” He took in the family scene.
“Nope, we were just leaving,” Dad announced. “See ya later, peanut.”
“Wait. Can we take a picture?” she asked Dad.
“Sure.” The two of them disappeared for a minute and then came back downstairs.
“Bye, Boppy. Bye Mimi.” She held out her arms and Dad swung her high in the air to a stream of giggles.
When they were both gone, she asked Tristian, “Can you swing me like Boppy?”
Before he could respond, I said, “Easton, why don’t you run upstairs for a minute?”
“I don’t wanna.” She crossed her arms and stood with her feet apart. Why, that little booger.
“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want. Go on, because Mr. Tristian and I need to discuss some things. I’ll call you when we’re done. You can make us a pretty picture while you’re there.”
“Okay.”
That had been easier than I’d thought. We watched her scramble up the stairs. When the coast was clear, I said, “Thank you again for today.”
“It’s why I’m here. I wanted to see how things went.”
“Please, sit. Would you like a beer? Or something to drink?”
“No, thanks. I’m fine.”
I filled in the blanks for him on the meeting. “I don’t mind if you attend them. You know everything going on.”
“I only will if you want me there.”
“Moral support would be nice, especially since you’re my witness.”
“I should ask them about that. I’m in, you know that. Maybe I need to be in on the meetings.”