Taking a stab - Day 3


the princess in her tower room, originally uploaded by herm007.

As if I have nothing better to do, I'm attempting to join in the fun at NaBloPoMo and post every day for the month of November. We shall see, I haven't joined the blogroll yet but will after this post.

Last Sunday, after leaving the hallowe'en party pictured above (quite the deal, and Douglas had a ball ... he used to be babysat with JM) we shivered our way down the street to the bus stop, as we had yet another party to go to, where we were meeting Fynn and M. It was a windy corner, we were underdressed, and Douglas was completely hyper. He was clutching the spooky house he'd built at the party with two hands, and extremely proud of it.

In a few minutes another mom and her 7-year-old boy sat down to wait with us. She told me the bus only passed about every half hour on Sundays, and that we had about a 20 min wait. I considered hailing one of the many gypsy cabs tearing around the roundabout in front of me (which is the only one I know of on the entire east coast? but I'm sure there are more ...) but decided Douglas needed to run off some steam, or he'd be entirely unbearable at the next party, which was not at all kid-focused and in much much smaller quarters.

The other boy pulled a toy out of his mom's shopping bag , wanting to show Douglas but too shy. They admired each other's creations, and then Douglas went back to his crazy dancing and circling of the bus stop. The mom then asked me what school he went to, as he son wanted to know ... he kept watching Douglas like he was an exciting alien from another planet, and apparently hoped their schools were the same.

Along comes an older Indian man, and another woman and teenager, and all seemed to know each other. The older man was on crutches, had a grey mustache, and was quite friendly though didn't speak to us. When the bus finally came and I unlocked my frozen fingers to take Douglas' hand, he pointed to the grandfather-ish gentleman and said he wanted to sit by that man. He chose a single seat right behind him, and I told the man he'd asked to sit by him. In fairly strongly accented English he proceeded to tell Douglas all the things he could have to eat if he came to his house ... indian rice, nice chicken, and so on ... all to solemn nods from Douglas. Douglas agreed he'd like to go home with the man. He had to ask to have most things repeated at least once till he got it, but persevered in an abnormal way for him, without one sign of frustration. They eventually fell silent.

The man and his friends got off before us, and Douglas yelled goodbye to him. The man asked several times if he still wanted to come to his house, this time getting a shake of the head "no" and he came over to sit by me. While the bus stayed at the stop, the man tapped on the window and continued to ask good-naturedly, through the closed window, if he was SURE he didn't want to come? The pantomimed conversation continued until the bus took off again.

I'm still not sure what prompted the interest, but enjoyed it thoroughly, as did the man. Perhaps the mustache? He never commented on the crutches, so I don't think it was that. No idea really, and when I just asked him now he got a similar grin on his face, but assured me he had no reason ... "I just wanted to." Good enough!