11/17/24
For E.C.
It was a most excellent “36th birthday” . . . /s
I shared CHEEZ-IT communion with E.C. and held her hand.
I watched her go down the tube slide “One more time!”—many times.
Thinking her Dad was trailing behind her (a physical improbability), she stuck her head back into the maw of the slide, cupped her hand to her mouth, and called out:
“You comin’ Daddy? You comin’?”
How does an “almost” 2-year-old girl learn to amplify sound with her cupped hand and call out around a blind curve and through a tunnel? From whence comes the courage?
It’s a mystery for the ages.
We watched an elephant toss a tree like a twig and use it to scratch its head.
As we were leaving the zoo, E.C.’s Nana was pushing her in the stroller, and her Dad was walking beside her.
I was a few steps behind, out of her line of sight.
I watched her look left and spot her Dad, then lean forward and turn to eye her Nana.
She asked, “Where’s Doc?”
“Here I am,” I replied.
I pulled even with the stroller and peeked around the cover. She smiled.
How cool and sweet is that? I thought.
E.C. has my back. I’m part of her pack.