Once Upon a Time in My Oceania

Trigger Warning: child physical abuse They were the biggest set of blue eyes I'd ever seen. I'm watching him closely, but giving him his space as we sit across from each other on the unpadded brown carpet. His tiny pudgy hands push two cars around; one red, the other green. He's nearly three and according to my communities word-of-mouth rules, too old to be in the nursery. But here we are, me in my last teen months eyeing him like a hawk and him, going about quietly playing. He doesn't look odd and for the life of me I don't understand the rumors. There's no way this semi-quiet little boy, making tracks on the floor with matchbox cars is demon possessed.  Suddenly, without a second thought, I chuckle and those big blue eyes find mine again. Caught. This time I just smile when I'm unexpectedly handed a monster truck that was just fished out of a wooden toy box nearby. I remember that play bin. It's been around since I was a child, but rarely I see ...