Joy lay on the bed – half-awake, half-asleep – with her ears perked up, listening to Sam building a train track in the living room.

She recognized all the clanking noises as pieces went together, and enjoyed hearing her big brother saying “Chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga, chugga-chugga, CHOO! CHOO!” and other sounds. She always wondered why he made those sounds, since the trains didn’t make any noise. Sometimes at night, after Sam and the big people went to bed, Joy would push the trains around a little just to check if they made any noises, but they never did. Once, after hours of thinking about it, she felt brave enough to push the red train along the track with her nose, and she was so excited when she got it to the top of a ramp and onto a bridge that she thought she would do this every night instead of sleeping, but when the train rolled down the other side and fell off a curve in the track onto the hardwood floor, the loud clunk made her desperately leap up into the air for safety; she hid under a folded-up blanket, her heart racing, and didn’t come out until Sam gave her food the next morning.

She loved hearing him play, though, and it sounded like he’d found what he called a “helicopter” to play with now – “Bedabedabedabedabedabeda,” came the sound from the living room.

Continue reading “The Adventures of Joy: Joy and the Aa-tick” →