2 To be a big boy

Gleaming under the murky dim sunrise, the compacted buidings give way to a tin city. Accross this tin city, the ringing of bells ushers everyone up to the first shift of their day or the first hour of their long workday. The buildings creak and groan under the swarm of people waking up. In a small room, small enough to fit only two twin beds side by side and surrounded by metal walls with only a small round window, big enough for a child to crawl through to the next building, the woman named Honey wakes up with a start and bumps her head with the bottom of the bunk bed on top. "Ouch!" She holds her head with both hands rubbing her head furiously to lessen the pain. She glances to her side and sees the father of the son. His black curls hiding his eyes. He is fast asleep holding her waist fast with his calloused, rough tan arms. She chuckles. "How can you be fast asleep with this noise?!" She says kicking him off not before untangling his hands from her waist. "Morning morning mommy" a little head with bright big brown eyes pokes out from the top bunk bed. She beams with pride at his address. "Morning morning little bee", she responds. The forgotten father groans, "ugh.. what time is it?". Honey looks down at him helplessly, "time for us to go to work Seth. Go take a shower". She throws a grey towel at him that had been hanging on the end of the bed. "Hurry up. remember I have to drop off little bee to Mother 1003, kk?", she stresses. Seth nods but then stops realizing something: " what happened to 956?". Honey gets up and goes to a locker in a corner of the room. " hopefully maintenance, but she is an old model so..." she trails off. "not that old. We still get the early models either way, but I guess that's better in a way", he rebuts. "Can you please hurry up there won't be any more shower rooms for you if you take any longer", she says frowning at him. He scurries out the door. Seeing him leave, Honey turns once more to the locker and pulls out a neatly folded long gray robe and short gray robe placing them on the bunk bed. "kk, come down little bee", she coos opening up her arms to little bee. He jumps landing on her chest and hugging her neck tightly. She laughs and swings him around. She puts him down, but little bee buzzes "again again!". "Maybe later. You are getting heavier," she chuckles patting his head. "cause today is your first day of school guess what Mommy got you?". "Ooh, ooh, I know! Is it chocolate!", he says excitedly jumping up and down. "No, but I think it is about the same", she says dispiritedly. " what is it?" little bee continues jumping up and down. Perking up, she walks to the bed and picks up the pillow. She opens its zipper pulling out a blue blue towel. Little bee's glimmering eyes land on the towel. "Mommy! what color is that?!". She smiles proudly. "Blue. Like the sky beyond the smoke of this city". " can the sky be so pretty Mommy?", he questions scrunching up his face. She laughs responding firmly "of course it can". " but mommy, how can the Stars be bright in such a bright sky?", he asks confused. She sits down and looks up at him while holding his little hands in hers, " stars come out at night when the sky changes color to dark". Little bee nods. She takes the towel and spreads it open. "The surprise isn't the color", she says pointing to a corner of the towel, " look, this will be your name". Little Bee places his hand on the name stitched on the towel. "Is it bee?", he asks. She chuckles softly, "that's what me and your papá call you to show how much we love you." He nods. "Then, is it boy?" she laughs loudly holding her stomach. "No, your father just sucks at naming, and he couldn't name you for a while..." She stops laughing. "I decided to name you because you are getting to be a big boy but have no name", she says rubbing his head full of black curls. "I'm just five. can I be a big boy?". "You can. Big boys go to school, so of course you can. Plus, I got you a handsome name", she reassures. A beep goes off close by. "Oh, looks like your father finally got a shower room", she says looking at a modem displaying a number on top of the locker. "let's go to the canteen and get some breakfast", she says placing towel back into the pillow case. "can I show Zio my new towel?". Her eyes darken momentarily, and she smiles at him. " sorry little bee. it's a treasure so you have to protect it". She stands up. Little bee rushes up to her grabbing her hand. "let's go get some breakfast", she says patting his head. "treasure treasure", he whispers.