Cramping Up on Cramped

Day 2. Today's prompt from Lisa Romeo is "Cramped." Maybe I was just up too late writing last night, but nothing immediately comes to mind, so I'll try a little free association. Setting the 10-minute timer now. Go.

Prompt: Cramped

Cramped, cramping, cramps. Menstrual.
Cramped, tight, claustrophobic.
Cramped, clamped, champed, camped.
Cramped, crimped, crumpled.

I hate sitting in the middle. Pauly always gets the window seat behind mom. Danny always get the window seat on the other side. And I'm always smushed in the middle. No fair. 

"I did not elbow him in the ribs. His ribs hit me in the elbow."
"I am not on his side. I'm in the middle. I want a side."
"I call the window on the way home."
"What if I have to throw up. I can't even reach the window. Don't blame me if I puke in Pauly's lap."
"Mom, Danny's making gagging noises trying to get me to puke in Pauly's lap."

When I grow up, I'm getting a car with no middle seats. And I'm only having two boys. And everybody will get a window.

When I grow up, I won't let my bigger kids push the littlest one around and always take the best stuff and the best spot.

When I grow up, I will never, ever blame the kid in the middle just because he has no room and everybody is always blaming him for stuff he didn't do.

I wonder what it's like to be the oldest. I bet it's great. Pauly thinks it's great. "Little baby Andy-pants, doesn't sing and doesn't dance." I hate older brothers.

And middle brothers. They're just as bad. Pauly bugs Danny, so Danny bugs me. Maybe Mom will have another baby so I have somebody to bug. Maybe I should ask for a little brother for my birthday. Maybe then we could get a bigger car and I wouldn't have to sit in the middle. Stuck. Smushed. Cramped in the middle. I bet Batman never had to sit in the middle. I bet Batman doesn't have any big brothers, either.

Stop. 10 minutes.

Hmm. Kid dialogue seems to come easy, but cramped isn't a kid word. It is a kid feeling, though. Kids feel everything so intensely — every slight, every pain and itch and loose tooth. I have to remember that when I revise my Ian manuscript.