Making room for Auntie Jessie

There came a day, once all the Anawim had come home, when the shelf was full. There was just room for everyone but no space for anyone else. In fact it was not always entirely comfy on that shelf, if the truth be told.

And that was without Two Hours Max!

Of course, Two Hours Max actually lived somewhere else, with their Auntie Jessie, but there had to be room for them when they visited, even if they never stayed very long. Everyone had to have a space on the shelf, even if they were just calling by.

On this particular day, Two Hours Max and Hineni were hanging out in the garden doing nothing special, just talking, wandering about here and there.

And then Two Hours Max said, in a matter-of-fact kind of way, “My Auntie Jessie can’t keep her house. We have to find somewhere else to live.”

Hineni didn’t know what to say at first. 

He had got to know Two Hours Max little by little, and put together some idea of Two’s home like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Just from things Two Hours Max had said.

“My Auntie Jessie was married to a troll called Ernie but one time when she was in the hospital she just never went back.”

“My Auntie Jessie says she has a Physical Elf and a Mental Elf and they’re both a bit crazy.”

“I used to live with Mum and Dad, but they wouldn’t let me wear the clothes I like and they wanted to call me by my old name . . . and other things . . . I asked if I could stay at Auntie Jessie’s instead, after she got her own place, and they said it would be a good idea. They thought I’d be good company for her when she was in a bad patch.”

“I won’t stay long. My Auntie Jessie isn’t very well. She says she’s fallen into a pothole in the Valley of Baca, right up to her neck.”

And now this.

“Where will you go?” Hineni asked. “Will you go back to your Mum and Dad?”

“No,” said Two Hours Max. “I asked, and they said I could have my old room again, but there wouldn’t be space for Auntie Jessie. I said she could share with me, but they said no, they didn’t want her. Dad said it was her own fault, she should have stayed with Ernie.”

“So . . .” Hineni thought about this. “Does that mean . . . So . . . You and Auntie Jessie — you won’t either of you have a place to live?”

“That’s right,” said Two Hours Max. “I expect we’ll think of something.”

Hineni had actually opened his mouth to say, “Come and live with us, then,” when he thought he’d better check.

Instead, he asked, “When do you have to move out?”

“A week on Thursday,” said Two Hours Max.

On a pretext of getting them some more apple juice and a bag of crisps, Hineni went in search of Danshari.

He found Danshari, after looking in a few different places, chatting to Yūgen and the Great Bear. They had a pot of tea on the table, and they were eating buttered toast.

“Can Two Hours Max and their Auntie Jessie come to live with us?” Hineni knew this sounded unexpected, but he wanted an answer in the time he could reasonably be thought to be fetching apple juice. “Auntie Jessie has to move out of her house a week on Thursday, and they haven’t got anywhere else to go.”

“Of course,” said Yūgen.

“Of course,” said the Great Bear at exactly the same time.

“Where?” said Danshari. “It’s getting a bit tight on that shelf. And Nimby won’t want them in the garden.”

“Well,” said Hineni, “I was wondering if they could have a little space of their own on the shelf where the medicine goes. At the end, where the things waiting to be washed usually hang out.”

“Sure,” said Yūgen.

“Good plan,” said the Great Bear.

“Where shall we put the laundry?” said Danshari. 

Hineni couldn’t think of an answer to this.

“I expect we’ll think of something,” said the Great Bear. “Tell Two Hours Max it’ll be okay to come here.”

“Auntie Jessie as well?” Hineni checked, to be sure. “I think she might be a little bit unusual . . .”

“Of course,” said the Great Bear. 

“It’ll be fine,” said Yūgen.

Danshari didn’t say anything. He was concentrating hard on solving the problem of where to put the laundry.

“THANK YOU!” said Hineni.

He took two bags of crisps and two glasses of apple juice out into the garden.

Two Hours Max smiled. “Cheese and onion,” they said. “My absolute favourite.”

“You can come and live with us,” said Hineni. “Both of you. Auntie Jessie as well.”

Two Hours Max’s hand stopped halfway between the bag of crisps and their mouth (Two Hours Max’s mouth, not the crisps’).

“What? You’re kidding, right?”

“No. Yūgen and Danshari and The Great Bear say it’ll be okay. We can make space for you.

“Wow,” said Two Hours Max. “Well, I’ll be . . . That’s fantastic.”

Later on, as they all sat round the fire in the evening, Danshari told all the others about Auntie Jessie, and that she and Two Hours Max would be coming to live with them now.

So just like that, it was decided. Hineni hoped things wouldn’t be more crowded than Two Hours Max could cope with, and he hoped he would like Auntie Jessie.