Unfair-Chapter 107: Ivy's Tale (Patreon)

Chapter 107: Ivy’s Tale

Once upon a long long time ago, before your Mommy or your Mommy’s Mommy, or your Mommy’s Mommy’s Mommy was a child, the People came down from Heaven. They worked the land.  They raised animals. They prospered. They multiplied.

But they were not happy.

They worked the land but they did not care for it.  They raised animals but took no joy in it. They prospered but found no meaning in their prosperity. They multiplied but the People came out full-grown and left on their way to work their own land and raise their own animals and prosper and multiply all on their own.  There were no Mommies or Daddies back then.  Everyone loved, but it was a selfish and short sighted love.

A love without Family.

So Heaven sent the People a gift.  Heaven sent children for the People to care for and teach and to fill with love unselfishly, and there was much joy.  People became more than just People because with children to take care of they became Mommies and Daddies, too! They became more whole.

Mommies and Daddies and children became Family and settled the land together and loved each other unselfishly and shared with one another and built homes and villages and towns and even great cities and countries together. There was so much happiness!  

And when children got enough love from their Mommies and Daddies they would grow, and grow, and grow, until they turned into People too.  Then they would go and make children and become Mommies and Daddies themselves and experience such joy!

This also brought great sorrow.  

When their children grew into People, Mommies and Daddies would no longer have them to love as they did and felt such loss! How could they be Mommies and Daddies without their children? It was as if their children had died, replaced by People, and with that death came a death within themselves.

Just as terribly, not everyone was able to become a Mommy or Daddy.  No matter how hard they tried, Heaven would not send them children of their own.  They saw the joy of other People being Mommies and Daddies and felt a most terrible longing! They feared they would never know the love of Family and the joys of children. To these People it was as if they were starving while their neighbors grew fat and content on a great feast, and then were ungrateful once the meal was finished.   

To add to the difficulty, some children received so much love from their Mommies and Daddies that they grew much too fast, much too quickly and became People before they were ready. The fruit that ripens too early rots on the vine.

So Heaven sent the People a new gift. Heaven sent perfect children who would not grow into People no matter how much love they were given. And even if these perfect children multiplied, their perfect children would not grow into People either, so they would not become Mommies and Daddies.  They could only become more perfect children in need of the pure love of a Family.

Now, Mommies and Daddies could stay Mommies and Daddies forever and the perfect children need never worry about how much love they were given because they would never grow into People! The People, the children, and perfect children became one big happy Family all over the world, and so Heaven changed their names to reflect that.

The People’s names were changed to “Grown-Ups”, because they were all once children who grew with love. Their perfect children were renamed “Littles” because they stayed tiny and precious and lovable no matter how much love they were given and Heaven did not wish to hurt the other children’s feelings for not being perfect.  A cub is not a perfect kitty cat but will one day be a mighty tiger. A kitty cat will never be a tiger but is perfect as a cub.

For a long time, Grown-Ups, children, and Littles lived in harmony, each as they should. But it could not last.  Littles are playful and imaginative, but they are also forgetful and foolish.  All over the world, Littles started to play and pretend that they were Grown-Ups, and their doting Mommies and Daddies spoiled them by allowing such foolishness to persist for much too long.

And the Littles pretended so hard and for so long that they forgot they were merely perfect children.  “We are Grown-Ups, too!” they cried. “We may look like children, but we are just as Grown-Up as you!”

But Littles do not grow as Grown-Ups do, and never can.  So they gave the Grown-Ups another new name: “Amazons”.  Against Heaven’s rules, they shouted “We are all Grown-Ups! We are all People!  Big People and Small People.  Amazon Grown-Ups and Little Grown-Ups!”

And all over the world, silly and doting and lazy Grown-Ups let them keep pretending, and instead of spanking them or shushing them and taking them back to their nurseries for a nice nap, and giving them yummy milk, they played pretend with them too until Grown-Ups too, forgot they had just been pretending.

Littles tried to work the land. Littles tried to raise animals. Littles tried to prosper. And they failed. No matter how much a kitty cat pretends to be a tiger, it can only be trampled or starve when it hunts a tiger’s prey.  

Worse things came from the constant pretending. Terrible Grown-Ups, barbarians who had either forgotten or had never heard of Heaven’s rules and Heaven’s gifts did terrible, awful things to the Littles.  

They did worse than humoring the Littles and allowing them to call themselves Grown-Ups.  They did worse than neglecting the Littles and allowing them to hurt and suffer in a land that they were not made to work and tame.  

These awful barbarians who had forgotten or ignored Heaven would let the Littles into their homes and villages and towns and even great cities and countries, and live in a mockery of Family. They did not give their Littles a Mommy’s or a Daddy’s love and treat them like the perfect children Heaven meant for them to be. They lied to themselves and to the pretending Littles and said that Littles could be Mommies and Daddies too!   

And they multiplied.

It was not fair to the Littles because Littles are not made to do such Grown-Up things. A kitty cat cannot roar no matter how loudly it meows. Nor can it feed a tiger’s cubs save with its own blood.  

Heaven did not want to, but it had no choice but to send another gift to the People. The children of Littles and Grown-Ups would grow with the love of Family, but they would never get as big as a Grown-Up because the Little part of them would eat up all the extra love.  Some of them would be as hard working as a Grown-Up, but others would be more like a Little and never grow up on the inside; but because they were bigger they would need much more care and love than a Little ever would.

These Twixt People, these “Tweeners”, gave Grown-Ups the gift of Heaven’s reminder: Grown-Ups are meant to be Grown-Ups, Littles are meant to be Littles, and when Littles are treated like Grown-Ups sad and unfortunate things can happen. You either get a Grown-Up who isn’t big enough and struggles to work the land and raise the animals, or you get a Little who is so big that their Mommy and Daddy have a harder time giving them love and taking care of them.

It was not the Tweeners’ fault. No one asks to come down from Heaven. It was not the Littles’ fault either. Perfect children cannot be bad or evil; only naughty and mischievous. They did not know any better. Littles were made to need Grown-Up care and Family love. It was only because Grown-Ups spoiled and neglected them, and because barbarians lied to them that they tried to make their own.

It was the Grown-Ups’ fault for not watching their Littles more closely and for not taking better care of them and letting them pretend until they got silly and forgot.  And just as it is the job of a Mommy and Daddy to remind their Little ones to take their naps and drink their yummy yummy milk, Heaven did its job and reminded the Grown-Ups what they were supposed to do.

One very wise and powerful Mommy, the Empress, heard Heaven’s reminder and understood that she must set things right.  So she took all the Grown-Ups she could with her to a special land far far away from the barbarians, surrounded on all sides by water, and they lived like Heaven intended.

They named that land “Yamatoa”.

The Empress heard the rules that were passed down from Heaven and turned them into laws for the Grown-Ups to follow.  In Yamatoa, Grown-Ups would always be Grown-Ups and Littles would always be Littles and pretending otherwise would not be allowed no matter how much the naughty or mischievous Littles cried about it.

And any Little that came to Yamatoa would be treated like a Little, no matter how hard they wanted to pretend to be a Grown-Up.  It was the only way that they could have the love of Family and for them and their Mommies and Daddies to truly know joy. A kitty cat is safest when cuddling with a Mommy tiger and nursing with the other cubs.

So the people of Yamatoa lived in harmony, happiness, and fairness as intended by Heaven. Grown-Ups were Grown-Ups and Littles were Littles, and everyone got exactly what they needed.

However, all was not yet perfect in Yamatoa. Tweeners wished to live in Yamatoa, too. And unlike Littles who whined and cried and shouted. The Twixt People quietly and politely asked.

“We come from Grown-Ups,” they said.  “Each of us has once had a Mommy or a Daddy who was a Grown-Up. But we are children no longer.  We are not perfect children and have so grown with their love. We can also have children who will grow with our love.  We can be Mommies and Daddies too.  In the name of Heaven, please, let us in.”  

Some Grown-Ups thought this was a good idea. “Yes,” they said. “They should be able to live as Grown-Ups.  They are still of Grown-Ups. A stunted tiger is still a tiger.”

Other Grown-Ups thought this was a bad idea. “No,” they said. “They are of barbarians who turned their backs on Heaven. Turn them away. A tiger cannot change its stripes.”

Still other Grown-Ups thought this was a good idea for a different reason.  “Yes,” they said. “Let them come live as perfect children. They are still of Littles. An overgrown kitty cat is still a kitty cat.”

There was much arguing. Much bickering and Grown-Ups almost acting like Littles stomping their feet and gnashing their teeth. No one could agree, and if the Empress heard Heaven’s rules, she did not tell anyone.

It was not until the first Empress went back up to Heaven that Heaven sent a new Empress. It was she who told everyone Heaven’s new rule: If a Tweener could work the land like a Grown-Up; if a Tweener could raise animals like a Grown-Up; if a Tweener could prosper like a Grown-Up; then they could live like a Grown-Up.  If they could live like Grown-Ups, they could multiply like Grown-Ups, become Mommies and Daddies like Grown-Ups and be part of a Family like Grown-Ups.  They would serve as a reminder of the original strength of the People and how good Mommies and Daddies can love and become strong no matter what difficulties they face.

But if a Tweener couldn’t do those things, if their Grown-Up side wasn’t Grown-Up enough to stop their Little side from being naughty or mischievous or helpless; they and their Mommy and Daddy would have to leave Yamatoa forever.  Grown-Ups were Grown-Ups.  Littles were Littles. It would not be fair to let Tweeners be both.

So it was decided and so Yamatoa became whole and perfect; living as Heaven always intended. Grown-Ups worked hard and gave love to their Families.  Tweeners helped, too, and reminded everyone how to live right and how important being Grown-Up is.  Littles were the perfect children and made their Mommies and Daddies very, very happy.  Everyone prospered.

Then a long, long time after Yamatoa was made perfect…

There once was a beautiful girl named Hana and a very hard working boy named Haru. Hana was a Grown-Up and Haru was a Tweener, but they loved each other very much.  

Hana’s family did not have very much money. Haru worked so hard that he made enough money for three Grown-Up jobs and was allowed to marry Hana because of how Grown-Up he was on the inside.

There was much joy and they were very happy!

One day, Heaven sent Hana and Haru a child of their own to give even more love to.  One that would one day turn into a Grown-Up. They loved their child very much for giving them the gift of becoming a Mommy and a Daddy; the gift of Family.  

They named her “Aibīi” which means “Ivy” because they knew that she would grow and grow and grow with all the love they gave her. Hana loved her daughter and loved being a Mommy so much that she knew that as soon as Aibi became a Grown-Up, maybe sooner, she would Adopt a Little so that she would never stop being a Mommy and to give that perfect child the Family Heaven meant for them to have.

This ivy did not grow very much at all, though.  After she was old enough to walk and talk; after she got all her first teeth; after Hana and Haru took down her crib and gave her a big girl bed; and after she stopped wearing diapers and started wearing big girl pull-ups, Aibii stopped growing.  Her shape would change, but she never got any bigger.

Her friends at Daycare got taller and taller. That was okay, because Haru was a Tweener.  Maybe Aibii was a Tweener, too.  Very soon, though, even Aibii’s Tweener friends were getting taller than she was.  Hana and Haru were worried, but they did their best not to show it.  

Then Aibii started having accidents.

Sometimes, at Daycare, she would spill her juice on her pretty dress or wipe her hands on her pretty clothes. Sometimes she would forget to wipe her mouth when she ate messy foods. Sometimes she would sit on the potty and nothing would come out.  Sometimes something would come out in the potty but she would forget to wipe. Sometimes Aibii would be so busy playing that she would forget to go potty and by the time she stopped playing she wouldn’t be able to get to the potty at all.

Hana worked at Daycare, and would tell her that accidents happened to big girls sometimes. Tweeners could be big girls too if they worked really hard. Such accidents also happened to her friends at Daycare, too, but for some reason Aibii’s big kid teachers were less patient with her and her friends picked on her for it more than each other.

Aibii did not feel like she was where she belonged.  She started feeling afraid of her big kid friends and her big kid teachers.

Aibii started to wet the bed and have more and more accidents every day.  Soon she didn’t go to the potty at all, just like a Little.  On her first day of Kindergarten, she was so scared of the big kids and the big kid teacher that she had a really big and really messy accident in her brand new big girl panties and cried and cried and cried.

Hana and Haru loved their daughter, but they could not hide their worry any more. They were afraid that she was a Tweener that was too Little on the inside and so they would have to leave Yamatoa forever. But more than even that, they were worried that she wasn’t growing.

They took Ivy to a special Grown-Up doctor to try and help her. They did not think that she could be too Little because Hana was a Grown-Up and Haru was a very Grown-Up Tweener.  Maybe she was sick. The doctor ran many many tests to figure out what was wrong with Aibii so that Hana and Haru could help her. After many many tests, Hana, Haru, and Aibii found out about the miracle:

Aibii was not a child that would become a Grown-Up.  She wasn’t a Tweener either.  She wasn’t even a Tweener with too much Little in her.  She wasn’t a Grown-Up or a Tweener at all.

Aibii was a Little!  That’s why she wasn’t growing anymore! That’s why she was having accidents! That’s why she felt like she didn’t belong with the big kids and why her big kid teachers at Daycare and Kindergarten seemed so scary to her! That’s why she dribbled sometimes when she drank out of big girl cups! She struggled and failed because Aibii wasn’t supposed to do any of those things! She was supposed to be Little!

The doctor said that Haru had given Aibii his Littleness, as Tweener Mommies and Tweener Daddies often gave to their children, so that was not a surprise.  What was a surprise was that Hana also had a tiny bit of Littleness inside of her and that a long, long, long time ago, her twenty times Mommy’s Mommy married a Tweener and that pinch of Littleness had carried all the way down to Aibii.

He said that Aibii had only been born the size of a regular child because Hana’s tummy was so nice and roomy that Aibi stretched all the way out when she came down from Heaven. Now that she was out in the world, Aibii would only ever get as big as she was right now.

That was what the Doctor said, but Hana, Haru, and Aibii knew the truth.

Hana and Haru were so special that Heaven sent them Aibii to be their own perfect child forever and always. They would not have to look for a Little and Aibii would not ever have to grow up.  Hana and Haru would always be Mommy and Daddy and Aibii would be their Little Girl. They would always be Family and Aibi could have all their love forever!

So Mommy and Daddy gave her back her diapers, and her crib, and her nursery, and her bottles and her cute baby clothes. They were extra careful to make sure that all of her baby clothes were still very, very pretty just in case she was sad.  Mommy even learned to sew and turned all of the big girl clothes she’d bought on accident into baby clothes, so nothing was wasted!

Everyone at the Daycare told Aibii she was so lucky! And she was! Most Littles didn’t find their Mommies and Daddies until they were much much older and had started being silly and pretending they were Grown-Ups like Littles tended to do. But not Aibii! She had known her Mommy and Daddy all her life and would be their perfect child forever and all the other Littles and teachers at Daycare were very nice to her and were good friends that didn’t pick on her at all!

Aibii was very happy for a long, long time! But a long, long time is not forever. Heaven sent another Mommy Empress with a new message. This Empress said that because all Littles liked to pretend to be Grown-Ups too much, that every Little in Yamatoa would have to watch a special cartoon to teach them not to play pretend. Every day.

Aibii’s teachers at Daycare made her watch the cartoon too, even though Aibii had never pretended to be a Grown-Up in her whole life. The cartoons made her head feel fuzzy and made it hard to talk and remember things. It was like she was sleepy all the time even when she was wide awake.

Mommy said the cartoons were changing Aibii, and she did not want Aibii to change. She loved Aibii just the way Heaven had sent her. Mommy tried to get her not to watch, but Mommy wasn’t the only Grown-Up at Daycare. One time there was a lot of shouting; so much shouting that all of the Littles at Daycare started crying. The big kids too.

Aibii and Mommy didn’t go back to Daycare after that.

Mommy and Daddy were worried, but they didn’t want their Little Girl to know.  The Empress said that Heaven told her that Littles had to learn from the special cartoons.  Even if Aibii didn’t go to Daycare anymore, and Mommy stayed home to take care of her, they were worried that Grown-Ups from the Daycare might tell on Mommy for breaking Heaven’s rules.  All Grown-Ups, Tweeners, and Littles who lived in Yamatoa had to follow Heaven’s rules or leave.

So they left.

To keep their daughter, their Little Girl, their perfect child, Mommy and Daddy turned their back on Heaven. They loved her so much that they would disobey Heaven’s rules if they had to. They would be barbarians. They left Yamatoa and came to a different country far far away and bought a house in a small village called “Oakshire”.

Daddy got a new job that still made a lot of money, and Mommy got a job at a special Daycare attached to a school so she could be with Aibii.  Her new teacher was a very nice Grown-Up named “Mrs. Beouf”.  When Mrs. Beouf met her and heard about the cartoons, she said that she was so happy that Aibii was in her class. Just like Mommy and Daddy, Mrs. Beouf liked Aibii just the way she was!  

Mrs. Beouf’s job wasn’t to make the Littles in her village stop pretending to be Grown-Ups by spanking them, or putting them in special chairs and cribs that held their arms and legs still, or sticking special pacifiers in their mouths that they couldn’t spit out, or teaching them with special cartoons that made them forget and feel fuzzy.  Mrs. Beouf’s job was to teach Littles and their Mommies and Daddies how to love themselves just the way they were!  

Just like Aibii did!  Just like Mommy and Daddy did!  They truly had found a new home!

The funny thing was was that Mrs. Beouf didn’t speak Yamatoan.  So when she heard Aibii’s name, she thought she heard “Ivy”. And Aibii liked it! She liked it so much that she begged her Mommy and Daddy to change her name and call her Ivy.  So many other Littles in their new country got their names changed when they left their old homes and found their new ones, why not her?

And because Ivy was such a good girl, they did!  

So Ivy got to be the perfect child she was always meant to be and helped other Littles learn to love themselves and be good boys and girls, too.  
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That’s what she told me.

Right there in the crib.

All in one go.

She didn’t have to pause or hum or search for just the right words. She knew it all by heart. It was part fable, part bedtime story, part dissociation technique.  She’d heard the beginning of it again and again and again until she knew all the words like a comforting lullaby. Then she and her mother…yes, her mother… had added onto it through the years; telling the events as she wanted to remember them until the memory of the story was stronger than the memory of the events themselves.

She didn’t look angry or sad to the point where she was choking back tears; her face scrunched up and contorting into cracks and fissures that smoothed themselves out over and over again, fighting to maintain even the slightest composure. Her voice didn’t sound like her throat was clenching and that at any moment she might cry out uncontrollably or be unable to produce sound.  Her breath wasn’t alternating between deep gasping breaths and quick, shallow little puffs of air. Her fists weren’t clenching and unclenching with terrible anxiety and guilt wiping away the droplets of water that threatened.  

That was me. Not her.

No; for all intents and purposes, Ivy was just a precocious and well-mannered child telling a particularly detailed and interesting story.

Her story.  

Ivy’s Tale.

But she wasn’t finished…

“Then one day a new Little came into Mrs. Beouf’s room. But he wasn’t in her class. He was in the class next door.  He was a very strange Little. Ivy had never seen another like him. Mommy said that he was a different kind of Little.  His name was Mister…?”

“...”

“Clark?”

“...”

“Clark?”

“...”

“Clark?”

“...”

“What’s wrong Clark?  Why do you look so sad?  I thought you’d like this part.”

“...”

“Clark…?”