Sample story
Noah and the Tiny Laugh
Sample · hero: Noah, 4
When Mom and Dad brought baby Ava home from the hospital, Noah was very excited for about one hour.
Then Ava cried. And Mom picked her up. Then Ava needed milk, and Mom sat in the big chair to feed her. Then Ava needed a new diaper, and Dad took her to the changing table. Then Grandma came over with flowers and said, "Oh, let me see that beautiful baby!"
Nobody said, "Oh, let me see that beautiful Noah."
Noah sat on the bottom stair with his stuffed tiger, Stripes, and frowned.
"Babies are boring," he told Stripes. "She can't even play cars."
That night, at bedtime, Noah said something he'd been thinking all day. "Maybe Ava could go back to the hospital. Just for a while."
Mom didn't get mad. She sat down on his bed and pulled him into her lap. "It's a big change having a baby around," she said. "Sometimes you wish it was just us again. Is that right?"
Noah nodded into her sweater.
"I understand," said Mom. "And I'll tell you a secret. When Ava was born, my heart didn't get split in half. It got bigger. There's a whole room in it that's only for you. Nobody else can go in there. Not even Ava."
"Not even Dad?" asked Noah.
"Dad has his own room," said Mom, and Noah giggled.
The next day, Mom said, "Ava is napping. It's our special time. What do you want to do?"
Noah picked cars. They built a whole highway across the living room rug, with a bridge made of books. For fifteen whole minutes, nobody cried and nobody needed milk. It was the best fifteen minutes Noah could remember.
Later that afternoon, Ava was fussing on her play mat. Mom was making dinner, and Dad was on the phone. Noah watched his sister's face scrunch up, red and unhappy.
He didn't know why, but he lay down on the mat next to her. He held up Stripes the tiger and made him dance. "Rawr," he said in his tiniest, silliest voice. "Rawr, rawr, hiccup!"
Ava stopped fussing. She stared at Stripes. Her eyes went wide.
"Rawr, hiccup!" Noah said again, and he made Stripes fall over.
And then Ava made a sound Noah had never heard before. A small, bubbly, gurgling sound.
"Mom!" Noah shouted. "Mom, come here! I think she laughed!"
Mom came running, wiping her hands on a towel. Dad came too, still holding the phone. Noah did it again. "Rawr, hiccup!" And Ava laughed again, her whole little body wiggling.
"Noah," Dad said, "that's her very first laugh. And it was for you."
Noah felt something warm grow in his chest, right in the middle, like his own heart was getting a new room too.
"I guess she's a little bit fun," he said.
From then on, whenever Ava got fussy, someone would say, "Where's Noah? We need the tiger." And Noah would come running, because he was the only one in the whole family who knew how to make his sister laugh.
That night, he tucked Stripes into bed next to him and whispered, "Tomorrow we'll teach her the hiccup song."
