Everett was doing his homework, reading aloud to me. We had finished the most recent chapter book, and so I looked around for something new for him to read, something that wasn’t so long. I found a book of fairy tales, and Everett chose to read “Puss in Boots.”
The story moved along nicely. He had a little trouble reading the word “ogre,” but that is understandable. He read beautifully, quickly, and the story unfolded: father dies, leaving his youngest son only a cat in his will; sorry excuse for inheritance (cat) is surprisingly beneficial, and young man finds himself (through various clever tricks on the part of the cat) a Duke, lord of a sizeable castle, and wielding authority over a good part of the kingdom. He also falls in love with the king’s daughter, and marries her.
Yes, the story was moving along nicely. There was only a paragraph left, when Everett suddenly asked me to read. Why, I wanted to know. Because, he said, this is the romantic part.
And so I had to read it– those last few sentences in which the young man and the princess confess their love and decide to marry. Everett just couldn’t stomach all that lovey-dovey stuff.
***
Emma Grace told me that Eric touches her hair every day. Why, I wanted to know. Because it’s so soft, she said.
Eric is right. It is so soft. And Ever So Blond.
I saw Eric and Ian, another of Emma’s classmates, on the playground the other day. I stopped to talk with them. And I asked them if it is, indeed, true that Eric touches her hair every day.
Yes, Eric was a willing confessor. And Ian, too. They both confessed without shame to touching her hair every day. They confessed, too, to sometimes chasing her on the playground in order to touch her hair.
Her hair is so soft, they said. And Ian said that Emma Grace has “angel hair.” No one else, he said, has angel hair like Emma.
***
This Friday is Greco-Roman Day for the fifth grade. Each of the students is writing a report on a Greek or Roman of note, each is doing a project hinging on an element of Greek or Roman history, and each is dressing as the individual on whom he wrote his report.
William is writing about and dressing as Junius Brutus, one of the conspirators against Julius Caesar.
We went to the fabric store yesterday to buy cloth from which I can make him a tunic. I will also be buying a cheap white sheet today, from which I will make his toga. We bought fabric paint so that we can decorate the edges of his costume– purple and gold. And we also bought red fabric paint.
That’s for the blood.
Yes, William’s tunic will be spattered with blood. So will his toga, and the dagger that he will have hanging in his belt. He plans to tear his costume a bit, on account of Julius Caesar’s struggle. He also hopes to have some blood on his face, and maybe in his hair.
I think he’s really looking forward to this.
