75 Euro

Beta just demanded 75 Euro from me, I’m not sure exactly what for, I no longer really ask. I gave her 100 and she made change. I’d been avoiding payment for the last couple days but she just won a bet about ladybug spots and in return I had to pay up immediately. Also my resistance is down because we had Alpha’s relatives over for sort of a pre-birthday party for Gamma and I’m pooped. Although the visit itself was entertaining, watching one cousin’s disturbed kid tear the heads off all my flowers – dandelions, pie-cherry, daisies, tulips and kerria japonica among others – and another wet her pants and try to hide it from her mother with maneuvers infinitely more amateurish than any of the inspired stunts Gamma comes up with, and the cats try to eat the cold cuts off the open-face sandwiches on the picnic table. Also my mother-in-law is losing her voice and my father-in-law is losing his hearing, which is a sad but interesting combination. Later on my father-in-law gave his wife’s sister a tour of our house which was okay because when I went outside and was asked where he was, I was able to say, “in our bedroom with his sister-in-law”. Gamma rode in circles on her new bike. Then the sun went down and it got cold and everyone left, after spending 15 minutes chatting in the doorway and 10 more chatting at the gate, and another 10 minutes looking for a bracelet one girl discovered she’d lost and never finding it (they called later to tell us she’d found it in her pocket). I practiced cello and Beta harp and Alpha put Gamma to bed and we drank tea and then Beta just now went to bed and asked me to tuck her in and since I of course must grasp any chance she gives me to interact with her in an affectionate manner – she being almost 13 and therefore often distant – I hid behind her bedroom door while she was saying goodnight to her mother and when she came into her room she opened her door wide, crashing it into me. “I knew you’d be hiding back there,” she said and I had known she’d know and I tucked her in and we said goodnight, her 75 Euro richer and me 75 poorer and yet a rich man.

One response to “75 Euro

  1. my little honey-muffin (she hates it when i call her that) is 14 and she still sits on my lap. i have a contract. she signed it when she was 9. i have full lap carte blanche. i rule.