Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
“But not everything is about what you want,” Magnus explains.
“Yes it is. I’m a prince,” he says.
“Oh, there it is,” Ella says with a sigh, sitting back on the couch. “I knew this day would come.”
Magnus gets up and kneels in front of Bjorn. “I’m a prince too, Bjorn. But I still have to follow the rules. I still have to listen to people. I used to be like you, you know. I did what I wanted, all the time, not caring. And in the end all it did was hurt people. And when I realized that I hurt people, that ended up hurting me. I had to change. Look, I know it’s busy up in that brain of yours.” He reaches out and gently taps Bjorn’s temple. “It’s the same up in mine. I know you have a million thoughts going on at once that never turn off. I know it channels itself into this endless energy that makes you itch, you know? Like all over your body from the inside out, and that you want to run around and scream because it’s the only way to let it out.”
Bjorn stares at him, shifting back and forth in his seat. “You feel that way too?”
Magnus nods. “I used to feel it more. When I was your age. It changes as you get older, but the thoughts? Those stay the same. Look, son, we don’t blame you for doing things that are wrong sometimes. We aren’t mad at you. But what you did today…it was very dangerous. You could have hurt yourself, or even worse. And, Laila, she cares about you very much and only wants what’s best for you, and you frightened her half to death. Same goes for James. For Tor. And same goes for me and your mother.”
Bjorn nods. “I’m sorry,” he says, staring down at his feet that are swinging against the couch.
“I am too,” Magnus says, kissing the top of his forehead. He gets up and looks at me. “Laila, you’ve done an amazing job. But I’m ordering you to take the rest of the day off and get some rest.”
I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not, and that’s okay,” he says. “I’m not trying to punish you. You’re like family to me now, and therefore I just want you well. Okay?”
I nod, feeling I don’t have much choice.
But even though I retire to my room while Magnus and Ella take care of the kids, it feels wrong to be alone. My thoughts are so jumbled over the scare at the museum, over my feelings for James, over the loss of my grandmother, that I have a hard time sitting still with them.
This must be what it’s like in Bjorn’s and Magnus’s brains, I think. The constant chatter, the thoughts that won’t stop bouncing, the need to move and make it go away.
So I put down the book that I spent twenty minutes trying to read and get up, heading back down the hall. I hear the kids and Ella in the playroom and pause in the doorway.
“Is everything okay?” Ella asks as she tries to make a puzzle of a woodland scene while Bjorn races a car into whatever Tor is building with blocks.
I nod. “Yes. I’m fine. Just turns out I don’t take orders very well. Do you mind if I…?” I gesture to the room.
“Of course not,” Ella says, patting the floor beside her. “You can help me finish this puzzle before Bjorn destroys it.”
I sit down and help Ella, and it’s not long before Bjorn runs his toy car over the puzzle. To be fair, he was saying, “Beep beep, beep beep,” for a good minute before the collision.
After that I tell Ella I’m fine to take care of the kids, and I end up in there with them for most of the night, building a fort in the corner with sheets and pillows.
“Laila,” Bjorn says to me as the three of us sit in the fort, finding a moment of calm.
“Yes, Bjorn?”
He looks at me with his big eyes. “Are you mad at me?”
The sincerity in his voice breaks my heart. “What? No, sweetie. Not even a little.”
He looks down at his paint-stained hands. “You sounded so mad at me.”
“Only worried,” I tell him. “Sometimes it sounds the same because our emotions are heightened and get the best of us. But it all comes from a place of love.”
He nods at that, worrying his lip between his teeth. “I’m going to try to be good,” he says after a moment, announcing it like a New Year’s resolution.
I have doubts it will last long, but I still tell him I appreciate it.
“Bjorn, Tor, come here, please,” Magnus’s voice rings out through the house. Bjorn gives me a worried look, like he’s still in trouble, and he and Tor scramble out of the fort, running out of the room.