Papa's Other Face

Papa had two faces.

There was the face that looked at Noor. It had the eyebrows up and one side of the mouth going up, and it always asked what happened next.

And there was the other one. The other one looked down. It went flat and quiet, like a photo of Papa instead of Papa.

The other face said one thing only.

“Mm-hm.”

On Tuesday, Noor drew a horse with eight legs, because four did not look fast enough.

“Papa, look.”

“Mm-hm,” said the other face.

On Wednesday, Noor’s tooth went wobbly. Properly wobbly. You could push it with your tongue and it went all the way over and came back.

“Papa, feel.”

“Mm-hm.”

On Thursday, Noor found a snail on the step. It had a shell like a tiny brown swirl of ice cream, and it was going somewhere, very slowly, and nothing was going to stop it.

“Papa.”

“Mm-hm. One minute.”

The snail got all the way to the flowerpot on its own.

So on Friday, Noor invented a game.

She took her picture book off the shelf. She held it up close to her face, the way Papa held his phone. She put her chin down. She made her face go flat.

“Noor,” said Papa. “Shall we go down?”

“Mm-hm,” said Noor, to the book.

Papa laughed. He laughed properly, with his head back. He called Ma to come and see.

Noor did not look up. That was the game.

“Noor. Shoes.”

“Mm-hm.”

“Noor, do you want ice cream or not?”

“Mm-hm,” said Noor, to the book.

Papa stopped laughing.

He sat there for a bit. The fan went round. Downstairs somebody was starting a scooter, and stopping, and starting it again.

Then Papa got up, and went to the kitchen, and put his phone in the fruit bowl. Face down, next to the bananas.

He came back and sat on the floor by Noor’s chair, which is a very low place for a Papa to sit.

“Show me the horse,” he said.

So Noor showed him the horse. She explained about the eight legs. She explained about the extra tail, which was also for speed.

Papa asked what happened next.

And it turned out quite a lot happened next. The horse had a whole plan. The plan needed the back of the page as well.

Later, Ma came in and looked at the fruit bowl for a moment.

Then she put hers in too.