Page 32 of Watching Henry

“Everything. Life. Having things happen that are outside of your control. Being a kid.”

“It'd be better if everyone just let me do what I want instead of bossing me all day.”

Hadley chuckled. “Yeah, I sometimes feel that way too.”

He looked up at her, then quickly back down at the ground when he saw that she saw him peek. “Yeah.”

“It's hard when you're angry but you can't be angry at the thing you're really mad at. So sometimes you get angry at people you're not mad at, just to try and make the anger go away.”

He snorted. “That makes no sense.”

“I think it does, Henry. I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. I think you get angry, maybe angry at your mom and dad, and because they're not here you take that anger out on your brother and sister, or on me, or on Florence. Maybe even on kids at school.”

He was quiet for a while. “Whatever,” he said eventually.

“It's difficult when things change,” she said. “Like when your mom and dad decided to get divorced, when they decided not to live together any more, that can be hard for a kid. For you especially, since you're old enough to understand what's happening.”

He snorted again. “Whatever.”

“Charlie and Emily really don't understand. They just understand that mom and dad aren't together. They get sad too. But they don't get it like you do. They don't get that sometimes people make mistakes, that sometimes it's better not to be married.”

He sighed and she was pretty sure that he rolled his eyes even though she couldn't see him. Charlie and Emily were still playing quite happily. “What would you even know about it?” he said aggressively.

“More than you know,” Hadley said quietly. “I do understand what it's like to have big changes, to be angry at things you can't control, to feel like your life is being ruined by other people's decisions.”

“Are your parents divorced?” he asked, and there was still aggression in his voice even though Hadley could hear the pain under it.

“No,” she said.

“Then how can you even understand?”

She waited a heartbeat. “My mom died,” she said quietly.

It seemed like a long, long time passed before Hadley felt a small hand crawl over her own and hold it tight. She smiled a little. Hope was not lost for Henry. But then she hadn't really thought that it was.

“It's alright to be angry,” she told him. “It's alright to be sad and to be confused and to be unhappy. It's okay to have feelings and to express them. It's not okay to hurt other people with your feelings though.”

“Yeah,” Henry said, still holding her hand.

“If you get mad then yell or, I don't know, throw things around. But you don't hurt your brother or your sister. They're hurting just as much as you are. It's not fair on them.”

“Yeah,” Henry said, but more softly this time.

“You know your parents love you, right?”

“They love me so much that they stuck me up here in the mountains with two nannies,” he said, a little of his old aggression coming back.

“Two nannies,” Hadley agreed. “They love you so much that they gave you two nannies to look after you. That's how precious you are.”

He was quiet but he squeezed her hand again.

“Now, you're old enough to understand a few things, Henry. And you're also old enough to negotiate a little. I can see that you're missing your screens, even if you do have a smartphone that you're sneaking around with.”

He looked up at her and his mouth opened but she just laughed.

“I'm not blind, Henry. But you know that Florence is going to catch you with it sooner or later and you're going to be in trouble.”

“Are you going to take it away?”