Robin and Batman

            by Ethan Poole

 

            I don’t know what made my parents decide to move away from our house in the Bay Area. They have always remained strangely cryptic about their reasons: “We wanted to do it” or “It seemed like a fun idea”. Whatever their reasons we packed our things and moved to Mexico when I was three and my brother, Adam, was five.

            When I look back on my year spent in the town of San Miguel de Allende I am surprised I remember anything at all. The trip was eventful: all trips are eventful in some way. What I am surprised at is that I have such vivid memories of some things, and none of others.

            The way down was long. My parents decided the best route to go to Mexico was through the Texas border. “The other borders are too dirty” my mother always said to my brother and me. I didn’t know where Texas is, but my mother told me it is very far from where we lived.

            The day before we leave, my parents rushed around the house collecting everything they think we might need. My mother comes up to me as I play with the Batman action figure and picks me up. She is very pretty and has shiny green eyes which comfort me when I am scared. She asks me if I am ready to go. I’m scared about leaving and ask her why we have to leave.

            “Think of it as a big adventure, Ethie,” she says “It will be lots of fun, I swear. And we’ll all be together, having fun. Do you want to go on an adventure?” I nod my head. Suddenly I’m not so scared.

            Later that day my mother goes all around the house and collects my toys and puts them into a big, black basket along with all of Adam’s toys. She puts this basket in the car between his seat and mine. Inside it are all the Batmans and all the Robins I ever had, even the ones I don’t like or am bored with. I try to tell my dad that I am not going to need all the toys and most of them I have already played with.

            He laughs, “Well, Ethan, we’ll bring them just in case”

             “Now you have something to do on the way there, so don’t complain about being bored” says my mother. She hates it when Adam and I whine about being bored. “I’m your mother, not your entertainment director,” she always yells. But I’m sure I won’t be bored because there are a lot of toys in the basket and even if I tried, I couldn’t play with all of them by the time we got to Texas, let alone Mexico which my mother said was even farther than Texas.

            As my dad began to drive the car, my brother and I began to play with our toys. I take out my Batman action figure and watch as he flies up above my head and then down, back to earth. He lands on my lap and I make a sound: “Pshwwww! I do this over and over again until, after a while, Batman isn’t that interesting.  I look over at my brother, Adam and he seems very happy playing with his Batman action figures. He’s older than me and gets to sit in a booster seat, not in a carseat like me. “You’ll get to sit in a booster seat when you’re older, but you’re not old right now” he says to me. I’m jealous and want to sit in a booster seat like him.

            We drive for a very long time. I’m so bored but I don't want to say anything because if I do, my mother will get angry. Adam doesn’t care though and says that he is bored and wants something to do. My mother turns around and says she doesn’t have anything for us to do, but once we get to Nana’s we won’t be bored. I wonder why we are going to Nana’s when my parents had told us we were going to Texas.

            We arrive at my Nana’s apartment in Los Angeles a while later. I’m very glad to finally be out of the car and I am soon at my Nana’s dining table eating all the food she has put out for my brother and me to eat.

            “Do you eat enough, Adam? You look too skinny,” she asks my brother. She looks at the two of us with intense eyes like my mother’s, as if she is trying to squeeze an answer from us. Adam looks at her with his big eyes, but doesn’t say anything. He shyly nods his head and then quickly retreats to his ice cream.

            My Nana sighs. “Well, no one will say I didn’t feed you. Now eat more, or else you’ll die before I do.” She pushes a slice of marble cake in front of me and then says, “God only knows why you have to pick up and leave the country. Why now of all times?” I want to answer her but I don’t know what to say so instead I take a big bite out of my marble cake.

            After a few days, we leave my Nana’s apartment and head towards a place called Arizona. My mother seems very happy about leaving my Nana’s, which is funny because I would rather stay there than go to Arizona. She tells us that she grew up in Arizona which is even stranger  because our house is in Berkeley, not Arizona.

            This drive is even more boring than the one to my Nana’s. All through the trip my brother and I complain about how bored we are. My mother tries to find things for us to do but we soon get bored with them. Finally, she breaks down and tells us she has run out of ideas and we will just have to be bored. My brother doesn’t like this, sticks out his tongue and spits. He laughs and I laugh too. Then we both stick out our tongues and spit for the rest of the trip. My mother just sits there and sighs “I tried”

            We arrive in Arizona the next night and check into our hotel. As soon as we walk outside, my face is hit with a blast of hot air. I’ve never felt air this hot before. We hurry into a restaurant and eat dinner quickly. We are all very tired and start to head back to the hotel.

            As we head back to the hotel, three fire trucks come around the corner. They have loud blaring horns and make lots of noise with their wheels. I get scared by the sirens and start to cry. My mother picks me up and holds me tight,

            “There, there,” she coos softly,  “Don’t worry.”

            “I want my carseat mommy!” I cry desperately. I don’t want to go back to the hotel and our house is far away. I cry all the way until we get to the car and my mother plops me down. I sit there for a while sobbing a bit but begin to feel better. Adam isn’t happy about having to wait for me and complains,

            “Dad! Ethan is being a baby. I want to go our hotel!”

            The next day we leave Arizona.

            A few days later, we get to Texas which is very big. We don’t stay long in each city but soon get to a place my mother says is called “Del Rio”. We pass under this big building, where a bunch of men talk to my parents and then let us go. My mother then turns around and says we are in Mexico. It doesn’t seem very different except people talk funny and I don’t understand them  We drive some more through Mexico and it begins to look different from our home in Berkeley. The buildings are built differently and the ground is dryer and hotter than anything I've seen before.

            After driving a lot more we get to our “new house”. It is raining very hard the night we arrive and we have to run all of our things from the car into the new house. I’m jealous because my brother gets to carry the Batman Batcave since he is older. I can’t wait until I’m old enough to carry the Batman Batcave like him.

            It’s late at night, so after we unload most of the things from the car, my mother brings Adam and me up to our new room. It’s a lot bigger than my room back in Berkeley and I’m excited because I get a big bed like my parents have. Adam chooses the bed next to the door but I’m scared that things will creep in at night so I choose the one next to the wall. The beds are cozy and comfy and I feel safe and almost feel at home. My mother sits and tells us stories about my grandfather and about his shoe store and how she would work at the store when she was little girl helping everyone find the right shoes. Everything calms down when my mother tells us stories. I feel special because she is telling them only to me and they are about my family and no one else can have them. Slowly I fall asleep as my mother finishes up her last story and turns off the light.

            The next morning my mother comes into the room early to wake us up. When she pulls off our covers, a rush of cold air surrounds me and I get shivers. My mother sees this and picks me up and then takes Adam by the hand and leads us into her room.

            My parent’s room is a lot different from ours. In the middle of it is a bed just like the one they had back home: big and soft. The room is very blue and doesn’t have much in it except for the bed and a small chest-of-drawers in the corner. But the sun always rises right outside their window and it shines in and make the room warm.

            Adam and I quickly jump into the bed and pull all the covers over us to keep the warm in the bed. My dad goes downstairs to go get some breakfast while the three of us wait in the toasty bed. While we sit in bed, my mother tells Adam and me more stories about the shoe store and I feel like I am back at home in Berkeley.

            Outside the window of my parent’s room there are three big churches. The one on the left is very tall and skinny, the one on the right is very short, and the one in the middle is also very short. My mother calls them “big church, skinny church and fat church”. Adam and I both like the churches and we sit in bed looking at them all morning.

            My dad soon comes up from downstairs with a tray of toast for Adam and me and a cup of coffee for my mother. He puts the tray on the bed and Adam and I scramble to get a piece of toast. I sit up in the warm bed with the sun shining on my face and munch on my toast. My mother sips her coffee and talks to my dad about what they are going to do for the day. She puts down the cup and gets out of  bed. I’m curious what coffee tastes like to I slowly crawl over and look in the cup. The coffee sits at the bottom like a dark lake. I pick up the cup and try to drink but spill all it over the bed because I’m too young to drink from a big kid cup.

 

 

            Today it is very hot. The sun seeps through the walls and makes the whole house as hot as a fire. Adam and I take the Batcave outside and play in the shade of the big tree in the front yard. He tells me he is better at playing Batman because he is older and that he should get all the good Batman toys. I get angry at him because I know that I’m just as good at playing Batman and so I start to cry.

            Adam starts to yell, “Mom! Mom! Ethan is being a baby! He’s crying because I am older!”

            My mother quickly comes out from the house and over to the tree. She picks me up then glares at my brother. “Stop being a stupid schmuck, Adam,” she says, “My God, as if you had better things than pester your poor brother.”

            Adam looks over at my mother and sticks his tongue out and spits at her. “He’s just a baby and cries because I’m older,” he says.

            My mother lunges a kick at his bottom as he walks away and cries after him, “Psh, walk away from me next time and by God I’ll do more than just kick your tuchus, you brat!”

            By this time, I’ve stopped crying and my mother sets me down and looks me in the eye. “And you, mister,” she says to me, “don’t let his taunting get to you so much. I swear by God you’re just too sensitive sometimes. Now, let’s find something for you do. How about Pirates?”

            I look up at my mother confused but don’t say anything. Somehow she gets the point and pats me on the head and says, “Go in and find your father and talk to him for a second. I’ll hide some things in the yard and you can find them just like a pirate.”

            I get hugely excited about this idea and run into the house to find my dad. I enter the house through the big front doors which my mother says are French. I don’t know why they are French doors because we are in Mexico, not France. I go into the kitchen and run straight into the  lady into Amalia, the lady who cleans our house. When we first met Amalia after we moved in, my Dad told me never to call her a maid, because that is not what she is. Adam points out that it doesn’t matter what we call her because she doesn’t speak English, but my Dad says it is the thought that counts.

            Amalia is very nice to me. She is big and loves to talk to me even though when she does, funny sounds come out and I can’t understand her. She points a chair and says some funny words like she wants me to sit down. I do and she smiles and starts talking even faster even though I don’t understand.

            I only know one thing to say that Amalia will understand. My mother taught me how to say it and when ever do, Amalia goes to the refrigerator and pours me a glass of apple juice. I sit up very tall in my chair and say to her,

            “Quiero jugo de mansana, por favor.”

            Amalia gives me a big smile, showing a mouth full of teeth, and walks over the refrigerator and pours me a glass of apple juice. She gives it to me and then says something, but I still don’t understand so I smile and thank her.

            I suddenly hear my mother’s voice calling me. I put down the glass of apple juice and slide off the chair. Amalia waves good-bye as I run outside of the house finally old enough to play pirates.

            Playing in the front garden, I pretend I’m a ruthless pirate hunting for treasure. My mother has hidden all my batman toys around the garden and given me a map to find them. She follows me around and gives me hints even thought I don’t need them because I’m also a smart pirate. After I find the first Robin action figure, Adam comes outside. He goes over to my mother and pulls on her leg, which is what he always does when he wants attention.

            “Mommy! Can I play pirates too? Please?” he whines up at her.

            My mother turns down to him and says, “Well, it’s Ethan’s game. You’ll have to ask him if you can play. But after the bratty things you said to him, I doubt he will let you...”

            Adam looks scared that he won’t be able to play pirates, but I’m a nice pirate so I let him play. He isn’t very good at finding  the treasure and after the game is over, he only has one Batman and one Joker whereas I have three Batmans, a Robin and a Mudman. I run over to my mother and show her what I found. She smiles at me and her green eyes light up,

            “Oh, Ethie! You found them all! You’re such a big boy!”

 

           

            Finally.