random little prince scene
“Please, sir. Draw me a sheep.”
Rafael hung his head, pinched the bridge of his nose, and groaned. “Luisa, this really isn’t the—“
“Please, sir!”
Luisa stood next to him, mischievous grin on her face, and leaned up against him, grabbing one of his arms with both her hands. When he turned to look at her, she feigned need, widening her eyes and letting her grin drop completely, begging. “Draw me a sheep!”
“Luisa, that is a shit book, and I don’t know French, and this is really absolutely not fair of you.”
But Rafael sat down at the bar in his hotel room anyway, pulling out a pin. “Do you at least have a piece of paper?”
Luisa slapped one down on the counter in front of him, the grin returning. “I have an IQ of 152, and you think I don’t come prepared when I ask someone to draw something for me?”
Rafael just let out another groan, did a quick sketch, and passed it to her.
“No, no, that’s no good. Look at his little stick legs! He’s sick. Try again.”
Rafael’s teeth grit together, but he did another quick sketch and passed it to her.
“Raf. Look. Horns. Really? I know you’re not as smart as I am, but honestly, you should know better than to give a sheep horns.”
He took the sheet back from her and added a few more.
“Okay, now with the pointed tail and the pitchfork and the weird little beard…thing, this is obviously a goat. I asked you for a sheep.” Her eyes squinted at the drawing in her hands. “You try again, and I’m going to go burn this.”
Raf had already started on his next sketch but stopped at her words. “Luisa, don’t!”
But she already had the drawing of the evil goat-sheep lit, the lighter pulled out of one of his drawers (how did she always know which drawer?), and it burned down to nothing in her fingers. She rubbed her fingers together with a grimace. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!”
“Luisa.”
“What, I thought if it burned down to nothing it wouldn’t hit me.”
“You and your IQ of 152.” Rafael pulled her hands together in his, glancing at them. “It doesn’t look bad to me.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not the medical doctor.”
“You lost your license. Years ago.”
“Okay, well, you’ve never been a medical doctor. So there.” She pulled her fingers out of his grasp and looked at them herself, then glanced over her thumb. “Yeah, okay, I guess you’re right, I’ll be fine.” Then she pulled up in one of the stools next to his counter and looked over the next drawing. “Look, Raf, you’re getting worse at this. This sheep is all stick figures and thin and sickly. He’s worse than the first one! C’mon, you’re better than this.”
“Ok, fine.” Raf took another sheet of paper and sketched a rough outline before handing it back to her.
“What. Is this?”
“It’s a box.” He pointed with one end of his black pen. “And see? Look. It has air holes.”
“Raf, I didn’t ask for a box, I asked for a sheep.”
“Oh, you’ve got a sheep.” Raf smiled smugly, leaning back against his stool. “It’s right there. In the box.”
Luisa blinked, looking at the box, then turned to her brother and gave him a good whap on his arm. “Asshole.”
Rafael scooted back away from her second hit and laughed. “Hey, that’s what they do in the book, it should be good enough for you.”
Luisa stopped, her lips pursed into a pout, and she looked down at the drawing again. “Yeah, okay, loophole around it.” She traced a finger around the outline of the holes in the side of the box. “It is a very cute sheep.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. You got your sheep. You good now?”
“No, Raf. You’re getting obsessed with all this…this stuff again. You should draw more. With your kids?”
“The ones you’ve never met?”
“Ouch, Raf. Salt in the wound. That’s your fault, by the way. It’s not like I wouldn’t be the greatest aunt in the world and you know it.”
“When you aren’t drinking.”
“I haven’t been drinking. And I wouldn’t drink around the kids. And,” she continued without pausing to take a breath, “there’s the term cool wine aunt for a reason. You know that’s my title.”
“Lu, you can’t have wine.”
“I can. Wine won’t get me drunk.”
“Lu, you’re not supposed to drink.”
Luisa made a wobbly motion with one hand. Then her face steeled. “I wouldn’t drink around your kids, Raf.”
“I know.”