A Regifted Candle and A Giant Stuffed Cow

“Dude, I’m allergic to this.” Cassie held up the lavender-scented candle, eyebrows raised.

Marisa blinked. “Oh. I totally forgot. Um, well . . . ” Her head snapped to the left as the bus rolled up to a stop. “Crap, I gotta go. That’s my bus.”

Cassie lunged forward in an attempt to grab Marisa’s handbag and drag her back, but her dark-haired friend was too quick. “What do I do with this?” she yelled as Marisa ran up the bus steps.

“I dunno. It’s your thank you gift. Bye!”

Marisa disappeared into the bus and the doors swung closed. Cassie narrowed her eyes and searched the windows for Marisa’s tell-tale vibrant blue jacket, but nothing caught her eye. Marisa had wisely sat on the opposite side.

“Now what?” she mumbled to herself.

A car zoomed past, kicking up last night’s rain water and nearly splashing Cassie. She scrambled to the far side of the city sidewalk, nose wrinkled. “Speed limit’s 40, Sir!” Cassie stuck out her tongue at the rapidly disappearing car then stuffed the candle into her bag and turned to walk home. She’d deal with Marisa later.

***

A cow was standing in the living room when Cassie got home. Well, a life-sized stuffed cow. Cassie eyed the strange addition to the Kastland home. It seemed to stare back at her with its droopy embroidered eyes as if to say, “Why me?”

“Mason!” Cassie shouted as she flung her bag onto the couch.

“Yeah?” her younger brother’s voice sounded from somewhere upstairs.

“Don’t shout in the house!” Mrs. Kastland shouted from the kitchen.

Cassie scooched past the giant cow and exited the living room into a hall. The door to the kitchen off to her left was wide open, revealing an olive-skinned woman with a wild mane of brown curls. She was deftly cutting up vegetables next to a steaming pot of soup.

Cassie stepped into the kitchen and pushed her own curly hair out of her face. “Why’s there a cow in our living room?”

“Dad and Mason bought it.” Mrs. Kastland dumped the chopped veggies into the pot and cast a look of askance at the cow. “Be glad it’s not a real one. They considered it.”

Cassie frowned. “But why–”

“It’s for Cousin Zacky’s birfday!” Mason interrupted as he barreled into the kitchen.

Cassie sighed. The kid had two speeds: dead stop and 90 miles per hour. She gently nudged him away from the knife their mom had left on the edge of the counter. “Birthday,” she corrected, “and Cousin Zacky is one. Well. He’ll be turning one tomorrow. What’s he going to do with a cow?”

“Ride it!” Mason jumped up and down and began racing around the kitchen table while making mooing noises.

“He’s too little to ride it. If anything, I think he’s going to be scared by it.” Cassie shot another look at the rump of the stuffed cow in their living room. “I thought we were just getting gifts for Auntie and Uncle Leeland? Like diapers and chocolate and stuff.”

Mrs. Kastland shrugged. “We were. But Dad and Mason thought that would be boring and decided it would be nice to get a toy for Zacky that he could appreciate when he’s a bit older.”

“And that’s what they came up with?”

“They didn’t have us with them, now did they?” Mrs. Kastland smirked, then wrapped a towel around the pot handles and carried it over to the table. “Dinner’s ready. Mason, will you go get Dad?”

Mason nodded with a loud MOO then galloped off to their father’s study.

***

The following night, they rolled up Auntie and Uncle Leeland’s driveway, thirty-three minutes late.

“I’m so sorry we’re late!” Mrs. Kastland apologized as the family was ushered into her sister’s home. “There were cow complications.”

Auntie Leeland’s warm smile twisted into confusion. “Cow . . . ? Oh!”

“Watch out! Coming through!” Mr. Kastland hollered as he and Mason carried the giant cow up the front stoop and down the entry hall.

“Moo!” Mason chimed in.

Cassie shifted her bag to the other shoulder and sighed, waiting for the cow to clear out of the way.

“It’s for little Zacky,” Mrs. Kastland explained needlessly.

Auntie Leeland blinked. “I . . . assumed as much.” Her smile returned full-blossom. “Well come in! It’s good to see you. How was the drive?”

The cow now out of the hallway, Auntie Leeland led her guests into the living room where a cream couch and two matching, overstuffed chairs circled a coffee table. Mr. Kastland and Mason had set the cow down on the far end of the living room with its rump to the wall. The room wasn’t exactly spacious, however, and the cow’s head loomed above one of the overstuffed chairs. Cassie hastily chose a seat on the couch, farthest away from the cow.

“Hey, sweet-pea!” Uncle Leeland greeted as he entered the living room and flopped onto the couch next to his niece.

Cassie grinned. “Hi, Uncle!” Her grin faded as the light revealed dark bags under her uncle’s eyes. “Are you alright?”

Uncle Leeland shrugged off her worry. “Just tired is all.”

Auntie Leeland shuffled into the living room and set down a platter of cheesecake bites and cookies. “Help yourself!”

She straightened and rubbed her neck. Cassie peered at her aunt’s face, finding the same dark bags under her eyes. “Auntie, are you not getting enough sleep?”

“Where’s Zacky?” Mason interrupted, tugging on Auntie Leeland’s sleeve.

“He’s–”

A loud scream suddenly ripped through the air, making everyone but Auntie and Uncle jump. The scream descended into wails.

Uncle Leeland began to rise from the couch but Auntie shook her head and began moving toward a staircase. “I’ll go get Zacky. Maybe seeing his cousins will help.”

The wails calmed for a moment, and then Auntie returned, a one-year-old with feathery dark brown hair like his mama cradled in her arms.

“Aww, such a cutie!” Mrs. Kastland cooed. She smiled as Zacky’s big brown eyes wandered over to latch onto her. “Hi, Zacky! Happy birth–”

Zacky’s eyes squeezed shut and a piercing scream erupted from his tiny throat.

Auntie Leeland rocked him back and forth until the screams faded back to sobbing wails. “Sorry. He’s . . . a bit cranky.”

“I’d be too if I hadn’t slept in three days,” Uncle Leeland snorted.

Mr. Kastland frowned from where he was helping Mason climb up onto the back of the cow. “Three days?”

Auntie Leeland sank onto the overstuffed chair not being hovered over by a giant cow. Baby Zacky’s wailing quieted into sniffles. “He sleeps off and on, but only for a little bit. I can’t get him to sleep for longer than 10 minutes.”

Mrs. Kastland helped herself to a cheesecake bite and glanced at the other chair. The cow’s head bobbed up and down from Mason’s antics, making its fuzzy chin bump the top of the chair. Mrs. Kastland remained standing. “Do you think he’s having nightmares?”

“Maybe.” Auntie Leeland stifled a yawn. “I don’t know what to do. The doctor said he’s healthy. And he’s eating fine.”

Uncle Leeland rubbed his eyes. “We were tryin’ classical music before y’all got here.”

“Which didn’t work,” Cassie mused. She frowned and played with the handles of her bag. “Didn’t I used to have nightmares when I was little, Mom?”

Mrs. Kastland nodded slowly. “Yes you–”

Her response was drowned out as Zacky’s eyes flung open and he let out another piercing scream.

“MOOOOO!” Mason yelled at the top of his lungs along with the wails.

Mrs. Kastland waited for the crying to quiet before continuing, “You did, but you didn’t cry quite this loud.”

“What did you do to help her sleep?” Auntie Leeland asked.

Mrs. Kastland looked at her husband. “I don’t really remember. Do you?”

Mr. Kastland shook his head then suddenly lunged to right Mason as the boy began to slip off the cow’s back. “Whoa there, sport! Careful.”

“Have you tried smells?” Cassie asked. “Like essential oils maybe?”

Auntie Leeland paused. “That’s a good idea. I don’t think I have any essential oils, though. That’s more of your Mom’s thing.”

“They’re good for you!” Mrs. Kastland defended.

Cassie coughed to hide her laugh. Cousin Zacky burst out into a fresh round wails.

“I could see if I have a candle,” Auntie Leeland said once Zacky had dialed down his loud wailing to a level quiet enough to be talked over. “Though I think I used up my last one a few days ago.”

“I’ll pick some up from the store tomorrow,” Uncle said.

Cassie crossed her legs, jostling her bag. The pencils clanked against something like glass. She frowned then gasped, realizing what it was. “Wait–I have a candle.” She withdrew the mason jar candle Marisa had made as a thank you gift for helping her study. “Use this.”

Auntie Leeland stood up and accepted the candle from Cassie. Zacky’s wails grew louder. “Thank you, dear. This is lavender though. Aren’t you allergic?”

Cassie shrugged. “I’ll be alright. It won’t land me in the hospital or anything.”

“Still. I’ll take Zacky to his room upstairs and try to keep the scent up there.” Auntie Leeland smiled tentatively. “Hopefully this works!”

She left with the candle, leaving the rest of them to sit around the coffee table quietly. Mason scrambled off the cow with his dad’s help and rushed over to the snacks.

“Where’sh shacky?” he asked through a mouthful of chocolate chip cookies.

“Sleeping.” Auntie Leeland appeared back in the living room. “The candle seems to be working so far.”

“Better work.” Uncle Leeland gestured at the cow. “So where’d ya find Mr. Moomoo?”

Mason giggled and hopped onto the chair that the cow towered over. “Moooo.”

“Moo quietly, okay?” Mr. Kastland said from where he stood next to Mason’s chair. He patted the cow’s cheek. “Mr. Moomoo here was adopted from a farm known as Target.”

Uncle raised an eyebrow. “I might have to check out the Target farm in our area.”

“Or maybe not,” Auntie retorted. She glanced at Cassie. “How’s school going? I heard you’re taking an art class?”

Cassie beamed. “Art class is so fun! And my teacher, Mr. Smith, is super funny. Want to see last week’s assignment?”

“Of course!”

Cassie pulled out her sketchbook and flipped to one of the more recent pages. She flipped it around so that Auntie Leeland could look at the charcoal sketch of students in a school hallway. One was lugging her textbooks in a microwave instead of a backpack. “We had to draw something strange but in a normal environment.”

“It’s very good!” Auntie Leeland praised. “If you’d had this assignment this week, you could’ve drawn the cow in my living room!”

The group laughed then wandered down new lanes of conversation. Eventually Mason curled up on the chair and rested his head on the arm rest, eyes blinking drowsily.

“It’s getting late,” Mrs. Kastland commented with a soft smile at her son.

“It is.” Auntie Leeland’s eyes suddenly widened, and she glanced over at Uncle. “How long has it been?”

Uncle Leeland blinked, then grinned broadly. “Four hours.”

Realization came to the rest of the family.

“The candle worked,” Cassie murmured. She rubbed her eyes. They were itchy, but not too bad.

“Thank you so much, sweety!” Auntie Leeland wrapped Cassie in a hug, then moved to hug the others. “I’ll be buying lots of candles tomorrow.”

“I’m glad we could help,” Mrs. Kastland replied.

Cassie woke up Mason and the Kastlands moved out the door to their car.

“Have a good night!” Uncle called out as they piled into the vehicle.

Cassie grinned as they pulled away from the house. I am totally telling Marisa about her regifted candle tomorrow.