Four Times Blessed Read Free Page A

today.
    There’s another rumble and I tense. I also forget to count. Oh, forefathers, I missed it. Now I’ll have to wait for the next one.
                  The lightning flashes again. Good. Eleni jerks under the covers and pops her head up, dark hair strewn all over her face.
                  “It’s ok, Eleni, it’s just lightning.”
                  The thunder comes again, and she plops her face into her pillow and groans. We listen to the rain and wind until the next flash tackles the next crash. They wrestle each other outside our window, then fall out of sight.
                  “Why does this always happen to me on the one night of the week I don’t have to get up before the butt crack of dawn to carry a bunch of dead fish up a mountain?”
                  “It’s just the island, Leni, not a mountain. If it weren’t so steep we’d be underwater tonight. Plus, the fish aren’t always dead. The clams you brought home to Zizi yesterday were almost all still alive. I know, I cleaned them and stuck them in the pot.”
                  “Shellfish don’t count as fish.”
                  “Neither do whales, and you just called them ‘monster fish’ at supper.”
                  “That’s because that’s what they are. Really big fish. They have tails and flippers, they swim in the ocean, and you can eat them.”
    She contorts her arm so she can hold up her hand and count off these reasons on her fingers. All while keeping her face in the pillow.
                  “They don’t have gills,” I say.
                  “So? Neither does a clam. And according to you, you can count that as a fish.”
                  I think about that.
                  “I think our problem is that we’re thinking of fish the animal and fish the food as different, but we’re using the same word. Also, I would say a clam is a mollusk. Molluska bivalvia something.”
                  “Huh? Don’t try to be smart with me. It’s three o’clock in the morning!”
                  “Sorry. Hey, Leni. What about a jellyfish. Would you count that as a fish? It doesn’t really have fins, but it does swim and you can eat it.”
                  “A jellyfish?” She lifts her head up and turns it to me. “It’s a half-fish.”
                  “Half fish and half what?”
                  “It’s fish and…plant. Because sometimes it swims around and stings you like it’s smart and angry at you, and other times it just floats around like seaweed.” And her head goes back in the pillow.
                  “Hm, I think it’s a whole fish because it hatches little babies and eats other fish. You’re right about how they act, though.”
                  “Crusa, why are we talking about this?”
                  “I don’t know.”
                  “I’m going back to sleep.”
                  “Aw, Leni, come on. Don’t you want to stay up with me?” I smile and clasp my hands.
                  “No.”
                  “But I can’t sleep!” Yes, I’m pouting. I’m quite accomplished at it, if I do say so myself.
                  “I don’t care.”
                  She rolls over so her back is to me, but that just means I can jump over her into her bed before she sees me coming.
    We mew and growl a bit as I take some covers and she tries to kick me into the wall.
                  “Ow, Leni, stop it! You just got me in the shin.”
                  “I’ll do it again if you don’t stop squirming over there and let me sleep.” She punches out with her eyes closed to make good on her threat, so I punch her back.
                  “I like eating