When I Grow Up

Life, Milestone

Erikur tells Catherine that he wants to help people when he grows up.

Erikur was sitting on the floor playing with one of the kittens when Papa came home from work. He leapt up excitedly and ran over and stretched out his arms for a hug. "Papa!" he exclaimed happily.   "Hey, Erik," Alexandre said before stopping the small boy. "Get back! I'm covered in shit! Your mother will kill you if you get dirt all over your tunic!" he scolded the young boy.   "Erik!" his mother called from the kitchen. "Leave your father alone and let him settle in!" she told him.   Erikur sighed in disappointment. "Okay, Papa. How was Spotty?!" he asked about his favorite goat.   "Uhh," Alexandre said with a shrug. "I don't know. He was fine."   "No, Spotty is a girl!" Erikur corrected him. "She had a baby! Remember?"   "Oh right," Alexandre said. "Why don't you go play until dinner?" he said as he shooed him into his bedroom.   "Okay," Erikur said reluctantly before reaching down to grab the kitten that was trying to claw its way up his trouser pants. "Can I go play outside instead?" he asked. "I wanna see the wabbits!"   "Go to your goddamn room! Sheesh!" Alexandre exclaimed. "I just want a goddamn second to myself!"   Erikur quickly ran into his room with the kitten and Alexandre slammed the door closed behind him. He started crying and Catherine walked over and picked him up.   "It's okay, Erik," she told him as she caressed his small head.   "Why is Papa so angwy?" he asked her in confusion.   She sighed and sat down on her bed, carefully cradling Erikur and the small kitten. "The work he does is really hard," Catherine told him. "He has to work all day and it's exhausting."   "But he gets to play with the animwals!" Erikur pointed out.   Catherine smiled sweetly at him. "I know," she agreed. "But some people don't like animals very much. He doesn't. You know grandpapa used to be an animal farmer. You'll probably be a farmer when you grow up, too," she told him.   "What will you do?" he asked her curiously.   She shrugged. "Probably be a wife and just get married, have kids and cook for a husband," she said.   "That sounds nice," Erikur said, prompting Catherine to giggle.   "I guess it could be worse," she agreed.   Erikur leaned against his sister as he pet the little kitten. "I don't want to be a fawmer," he decided. "I don't want to be angwy all the time."   Catherine kissed his forehead. "So what are you gonna do instead?" she asked him, letting him enjoy his fantasy.   He shrugged. "I don't know yet. Maybe be a wife, like you," he told her.   She giggled. "You can't be a wife!" she teased him. "You have to be a husband and marry a wife," she explained.   "Well I want to do something fun!" he decided. "Like... colowing! I like colowing!"   She giggled. "You better practice, then. It's nearly impossible for people as poor as us to become artists," she pointed out as she sat him back down on the ground.   "What does poor mean?" he asked her as he found his charcoals and his coloring book.   Catherine pondered this for a moment. "Well... it just means we don't have a lot of money," she told him.   He looked at her blankly. "Whadda you mean? What's money?" he asked her.   She giggled and sat down on the floor next to him and picked the kitten up. "Well, so when Papa goes and works on the farm all day, he collects milk from the goats. Then he takes that milk over to the market and sells it in exchange for coins, money," she explained. "So then he takes that money and uses it to buy us food and clothes and firewood and stuff."   Erikur pondered this for a moment as he started coloring a rabbit. "Hmm," he said thoughtfully. "Why do we have to buy food and stuff? Why can't we just have it fow fwee?"   Catherine shrugged. "Because someone had to grow it," she explained. "Like, some people will buy milk that we sold them and we can buy carrots or celery from them."   "So everyone has a job then, like Papa, so that they can have money and then have food?" he asked, trying to understand.   "Basically," Catherine agreed. "I mean, some people don't have jobs. You know the people on the street in the dirty clothes?" she asked him. "They're called beggers and they don't have jobs."   "Why don't they have jobs?" he asked her in confusion. "If they don't have jobs they can't have food and money," he pointed out.   She shrugged sadly. "Some don't and they... die from hunger. Some are injured so they can't do hard labor like working with animals and there's also just, not enough jobs for everyone."   Erikur sat up and shook his head at her. "People die?!" he asked in horror.   She nodded. "Yeah, it's really sad, huh?" she said.   He nodded sadly. "People shouldn't have to stawve and die," he said sadly.   Catherine smiled sweetly at him. "No, they shouldn't," she agreed. "You'll figure it all out one day. This world is pretty crummy, Erik," she told him.   He frowned and plopped his head on his fists as he got back to his coloring. "I know what I wanna do when I gwow up," he decided after a few moments.   "Oh yeah?" Catherine asked him. "What?"   "I wanna make it so no one's poor and hungwy," he told her decisively.   She smiled and kissed his head. "You're too good for this world, Erik," she told him. "I hope you change it one day. You'd make a much better emperor than Staladin, that's for sure," she muttered under her breath.   "Don't wowwy, Cathewine," he assured her confidently. "I will."