Thursday, September 25

Middle of the Bus

The boy is inconsistent. Occasionally I beg and beg for a scrap of information, and nothing comes. Sometimes I blackmail and I get an odd tidbit or two. Then sometimes, out of nowhere, a spewing of information erupts from his body as if he just can't contain it anymore.

I'm at the computer. Doodles comes running up.
Doodles: We heard a book about Johnny Appleseed today!
Me: Yea?
Doodles: Yea! He was a friend of the Indians! Just like the pilgrims!
Me: Oh!
Doodles: And he walked all the way from Massachusetts to India!
Me: India?
Doodles: Yes, India!
Me: Are you sure it was India?
Doodles: I'm sure! He walked all the way to India.
Me: Maybe it was Ohio?*
Doodles: Oh, right. That's it. He walked to Ohio.

Of course, every now and I then I find the innocent questions actually yield quite a bit of insight into his day. Today Doodles went on his first field trip: apple picking (ah, now the Johnny Appleseed story makes sense, doesn't it!).

Me: So did you like riding on the bus?
D: Yes.
M: Who did you sit next to?
D: On the way there or on the way back?
M: Both.
D: I don't remember who I sat with on the way there.
M: Okay, who did you sit with on the way back?
D: I sat with O. and J.
M: Three in a seat?
D: Yep.
Me, frantically trying to figure out how to keep the conversation going: So... did you sit in the middle or the window or the aisle?
D: First I sat on the outside and then the middle.
Me: So on the way there you sat on the outside and on the way home you sat in the middle?
D: No, on the way home I sat on the outside and then I moved to the middle.
Me: In the middle of the bus ride?
D: Yea. A teacher made me switch because J. was sitting like this [he demonstrates] and O. was doing this [he demonstrates] and O. kept sitting on J.'s hand and J. got angry so we had to switch and I sat in the middle.
Me: Ah.
D: Can I go now?
Just goes to show you, there really isn't ever a stupid question.


*The nice thing about this being my blog is I'm able to use a bit of revisionist history. Because anyone who actually heard the conversation, might have thought they heard me say, "Maybe it was Oregon?" because frankly I don't remember the story at all, but a quick Google search shows me he only made it to Ohio, which means either he's lazy or perhaps "Ohio" is what I really said in the first place.

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