She sat across me slowly licking her ice-cream and making mountains from the pool of vanilla. It doesn’t come naturally to me to just sit and talk while slowly savouring an ice-cream cone – my concept has always been more of a walk and devour one.
I asked her, “Do you want to walk with your cone while we go to the shops?” (i.e. HINT, let’s go), and she coolly shook her head.
“You don’t want to?” (i.e. STRONGER HINT)
“No, I want to sit here.”
It’s quite revealing to me that a little 7-year-old can teach me a thing or two about enjoying the moment. It is also quite astounding to me just how honest children really can be (sometimes making me feel, this girl is in need of some serious social graces – STOP staring at the next table, no matter how weird you think the other kid is!). This is not laden with irony though – just as honest as they are, they also tell lies so easily. And they think that their stories are so believable and adults would definitely fall for them. Truth hurts, little one! But the lies are usually little harmless ones that don’t bother me. And you know, I REALLY used to be just like that. I always thought adults were so silly and had really never been MY KINDA young before. Sure, they were all babies once, but they were ADULT babies!
Bringing her out was strangely, really fun for me. Not in an outright way, but in a subtle, I-love-kids way. Yeah, that doesn’t even make sense. Things like putting coins in the correct box in the bus, pressing the bell so it would chime, introducing her to void decks and buses, reading meaningful books with her (Monster Princess, Lessons from Mother Earth, how about that!), holding her hand as we walk along the roads – the simpleness of pleasing children really got to me. I don’t have to try hard and force conversation, neither do I have to come across as somebody else (though I just have to know about all the words in the universe). It’s the idea that I can be me, and they actually don’t mind, maybe even like me!
You know, it’s not just the ice cream cone, the pretzel or the gifts that make them happy. It’s taking the time to talk to them, and to really be interested in what they have to say. That’s when these things become real to them.
Ice-Cream Parlour
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