Monday, June 11, 2012

Art imitating life

It's already past DS's bedtime and we are trying to fit comfortably on his twin bed.  When finally all the technical difficulties of sharing a small pillow and a child-size blanket with his quite overweight mother have been resolved, DS resorts to his usual, "Mom, tell me a story."  I have been in a horizontal position for only few seconds, but already feel my eyelids getting heavy.  I search the brain for a story, any story, but it has shut down for the day.  DS doesn't give in.  I can barely turn my tongue, but resistance is futile.  Hmmm.... Space, the final frontier, Captain Jean Luc Picard...  "Mommy, my story!"  jolts me from my half-asleep half-awake state.  And so I start.

"Once upon a time there lived a little boy, just like you, whose name was - surprise - DS!  Once he decided that he no longer wanted to fall asleep alone and started asking his Mommy to lie down next to him.  Mommy didn't like it much, but she loved her little boy and agreed.  Then the little boy would ask Mommy to tell him a story.  And Mommy usually would tell him a story, about kings and princes, and two best friends Baby Penguin and Baby Sea Lion, or about an Old Man and his Golden Fish.  But that night Mommy was soooo tired, she couldn't think of any story and asked DS if he could fall asleep without one.  And DS, being a nice and considerate boy, who took commandment of honoring his parents very seriously, happily agreed.  End of story."

DS:  This is a fake story!
SW:  Why do you say it's fake?
DS:  Because it is about me.  I want a real story!  (I'll let you ponder on the irony of that statement.)
SW: Tomorrow.
DS:  Today.
SW:  Tomorrow.

DS is also wiped, so he gives up and we both drift off to sleep.  Well, don't know about him, but I am gone before I finish saying"tomorrow," but after thinking "Real, huh?  Because friendship between baby penguin and baby sea lion is soooo real.  Just watch some National Geographic."