Foreshadowing
Tonight at dinner time, I sent Boo out to the park to get Pumpkin Girl where she was playing with her friends. Bip was underfoot during the last minute preparations, so Philip suggested that Boo take him along in the wagon. They took a little longer to get home than I’d expected, so I looked out the window for them. I spotted Boo coming up the street, pulling both Pumpkin and Bip in the wagon.
A few minutes later, hands washed and grace said, we started dinner. Boo and Pumpkin Girl started telling their story.
Apparently, when Boo and Bip arrived at the park, they didn’t see Pumpkin Girl or her friends. So Boo started calling for her. Pumpkin says she heard someone calling softly, “Pumpkin!” She looked around but didn’t see him. She heard it again, softly, “Pumpkin!” Still, she didn’t see him. Boo says he was trying to call her gently, instead of his usual yelling at her. (I was glad to hear that all my lecturing is sinking in.) So finally he saw her and called loudly, “PUMPKIN!!” Bip, ever helpful, called her, too. This time Pumpkin turned and saw her brothers.
Boo, a little frustrated at her, had his annoyed face on and his fists clenched at his sides in mock anger. Bip, on the other hand, raised his arms for his sister. “Like this,” he added, showing me his “come hug me” stance. So Pumpkin Girl said goodbye to her friends and ran to her brothers.
“Get in,” Boo growled, gesturing to the wagon.
As they started to pull away, Pumpkin’s friends called out, “Bye, Pumpkin! Nice ride!”
To which she yelled back, “Yeah, totally!” And home they came.
Not only was their telling of the story, punctuated with Bip’s point of view, very funny, but Philip and I couldn’t help but think that this was just a preview of years to come.
Fast forward seven or eight years. I’m busy getting dinner ready and realize that Pumpkin Girl needs to be picked up from ballet class. I ask 17 year old Boo to go pick her up and Bip asks to go with. Boo pulls up to the studio and finds Pumpkin chatting with her friends. He honks the horn, she “doesn’t hear” him. He honks again, louder this time and she turns towards him. He glowers at her. She says goodbye to her friends and runs to the car. He gruffly tells her to get in. Bip greets her happily.
As Boo’s pulling out of his parking space, Pumpkin’s friends see him and giggle and call out, “Bye, Pumpkin! Nice ride.” She’ll giggle and wave back.
Off they’ll go. But this time Boo will be making a mental note to volunteer to pick up Pumpkin Girl more often.
And I’ll be the one left giggling.
