The Small Blanket on the Big Chair
Chapter 1The Chair Was Taken
The little striped blanket lay over the arm of Ari's favourite chair.
Beside it stood a basket of baby clothes.
His new sister was asleep in Mama's arms. Visitors had brought cakes, tiny socks, and more questions about the baby than Ari could count.
He liked looking at her small fingers.
He also wanted the big chair back.
Mama, wearing her grey tichel, asked him to move his model cart off the low table.
"The visitors need somewhere for their cups."
Ari carried it upstairs.
One axle rolled beneath his bed.
Chapter 2The Good Brother
An aunt told him he must be delighted to have a sister.
Ari said yes.
It was true when he watched the baby grip a finger.
It was less true when the house filled with visitors during the afternoon he and Tatty had planned to finish the model.
He couldn't explain both parts beside a tray of cake.
He smiled until his face felt stiff.
That evening, he found the axle but couldn't fit it through the wheel.
Tatty came upstairs to ask whether he could wait until tomorrow.
Ari set the wheel down harder than he meant to.
"Everyone's busy with her."
Chapter 3The Wrong Thing to Want
Tatty sat on the edge of the bed.
Ari looked at the blanket basket through the open door.
"Forget it. I shouldn't have said that."
"You can tell me what you miss."
"You're supposed to be happy about a baby."
"Are you never happy about her?"
Ari thought of the little hand.
"I am. But I miss when we did things."
Tatty didn't ask him to choose which answer was the real one.
Both had come out of the same boy, on the same evening.
Chapter 4A Time That Could Happen
They looked at the model.
Tatty couldn't promise to finish it that night. Mama needed help, and the baby would wake soon.
He could spend twenty minutes with Ari after supper on Thursday. He wrote the plan on the kitchen calendar.
"If something urgent changes it, I'll tell you and we'll choose another time. I won't just leave you waiting."
Ari still wanted tonight.
He put the wheel and axle in a shallow box so they wouldn't disappear while he waited.
A later plan wasn't the old afternoon returned.
It was something they could actually do.
Chapter 5Not the Baby's Fault
The next morning, Ari saw the striped blanket again.
For a moment he wanted to push it onto the floor.
Then he moved it to the clean basket and sat in the chair while he read.
His sister had not decided where the blanket should go or who should visit.
She hadn't promised him a model afternoon and broken it.
He could be annoyed about changed arrangements without choosing someone too small to answer as the person to punish.
When Mama asked him to fetch a clean cloth, he did.
Then he told her he needed to finish his homework before another job.
Chapter 6The Small Job He Chose
Mama asked whether he wanted to help choose which two blankets would go in the outing bag.
"After homework," Ari said.
She agreed.
He picked the striped one and a plain yellow one.
Mama checked that they were suitable and packed them herself.
Ari liked choosing.
He did not become responsible for the baby's care because he had enjoyed one small job.
Later, when she cried while Mama was resting, he called Tatty.
He didn't try to be the grownup who knew what she needed.
Tatty came downstairs, and Ari returned to his book.
Chapter 7Thursday's Wheel
On Thursday, Tatty put the shallow box on the table after supper.
They fitted the axle through the wheel together.
Halfway through, the baby woke.
Tatty spoke with Mama, who was ready to care for her. He came back and finished the promised twenty minutes.
The model still needed its handles attached.
Ari put it in the box again.
"Can we choose another time for those?"
They did.
The house was busier than before. That didn't mean every unfinished thing had to belong to Ari alone now.
Chapter 8Room on the Chair
When the visitors came on Friday afternoon, Ari was already reading in the big chair.
Mama asked whether he would move his book to make room for Bubby.
He did, and Bubby asked about the model before asking to see the baby.
Ari brought down the little cart.
Its wheels rolled properly. Its handles were still waiting.
Then he stood beside Mama and looked at his sister.
He felt fond of her.
He also hoped the visitors would leave before his usual quiet reading time.
Neither feeling had to erase the other.
He stroked the blanket with one finger and went to find a chair beside Bubby, where there was room for the book and the cart.
