Rescue from the death factory

“Can the kids spend the night?” I asked my daughter over the phone last Friday.

“Wahoo!” I heard the shout go up.  And then she told the kids…

When I arrived, I knocked and opened the door.  “I’m here.”  The Mouse heard my voice and raced up the few steps to the half door separating the family room from the rest of the house.  His little hand fumbled with the door knob.  I leaned over and pulled him up.  “YaYa,” he said and smiled.

“I can’t go,” my granddaughter teared up.  “I haven’t finished my laundry.”  Mom, the GAP, was doing a good job teaching the kids to fold and put away their own clothes.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her.  “I’ll wait for you.”

The Bug was reading in the corner.  He’d been tested in his school’s full-day gifted program; he’s number one in the class, reading at a 9.7 grade level.  Am I smarter than a third grader?  Probably not this one.  “You need to do more outside,” I encouraged.

“I do, Grandma,” he acknowledged.  “Sometimes I take a book outside and read under a tree.”

When we arrived at my home, my granddaughter, the Worm, wanted to write a play.  It was about seven kidnapped kitties.  When I found out she was going to draw them and hide the illustrations I suggested she reduce the number to three.  She had as much trouble remembering where she put things as I did.  She’d never remember seven different locations.

“What do you want to call it?” I asked.

“Escape from Puppy and Kitty Death Factory,” she said.  Interesting, I thought.

I jotted Narrator on a piece of paper for her where she continued the writing her plot.  “And then they started looking for Meowers (her names are so creative).  So they looked and looked, then they found Meowers in back of the exit doors.  And then Wolfie (that’s the dog) shot the doors down.  And then they ran out of the factory and that’s the play.”

Now for the script:

1. Oh, my friends are lost.  Were [where] can they be?
2. I found one of my friends.  Ya [yeah]!
3. I found my second friend!  Woo hoo! Ya!
4. But were [where] could my other friends be?
5. I found my thered [third] friend!  Woo!  Ya! Woo!  Woo!
6. But where [where] could my four other friends be?  (Editor’s note:  Math at work.)
7. Ya! I found my fourth friend!
8. I found my 5^th friend!  Ya!  Woo hoo!
9. But were [where] could my too [two] more friends be?
10. I found them!  Ya!  Woohoo!

The only thing I detected from this script is – the first graders must have recently been introduced to exclamation points!

She hid her lost kitties and we followed the script, finding them.  It was like one of those murder mysteries where you go from room to room. 

After rescuing lost kitties from the death factory, we were all pretty exhausted and got ready for bed.  Everyone (but me) decided they wanted to sleep on the mats.  The Mouse took his third out of the middle.  But no one complained.

The baby, now twenty months old but still silent as a Mouse, and I were walking in the front yard the next morning when the GAP came for her young crew.  He looked at his mom, still in the car, did a double take, and ran to me with his arms outstretched.  He may not talk but he certainly knows how to get what he wants.

Related posts:

1. The gaps in my life
2. The magic of youth
3. A winter’s day in California with grandkids
4. Encores and firsts
5. Stump chump