Things they are better

They crash into the room, crawl crab like, up into bed with me, then quickly scurry just beneath the pale yellow sheets and blue striped comforter for cover. Jack suggests - Liva, let’s go under. She glances at me, trying to decide if she should pull herself away from my loose embrace to join her brother in the darkness of the covers. It is a momentary hesitation. She pushes off and joins him in swimming down, down, down into the depths of the bed.
I watch them. Olivia lies perfectly still, wrapped in her own shell. Not Jack. Jack is in constant flux. Arms push up the blue and then legs. He sits up. He lies back down. He puts a foot out the side into the air. He lifts the side up to let in light. She lies undisturbed in her shell. I reach over to tickle Jack’s exposed foot. He pulls it away laughing and then the foot emerges again. She stirs. Jack and I continue our tickle game. Slowly she extends her foot from the shell and when I latch on and tickle it, both of them explode out of the depths and scurry back out of the room