This
morning Halen and Grace’s friend Shawn came over. He played for a while and
then announced that a baby just came out of his cat, Pebbles.
“She
had kittens?” Grace exclaimed.
Seeing
this as my big chance to motivate Grace and Halen to get dressed quickly, I
suggested that they go see the new babies. Eyes alight, the two of them flew up
the stairs to change clothes as Shawn set about studying his shoes near the
doorway.
When
Grace returned, fully dressed, about 4.2 seconds later, questions were spilling
out of her. “When did Pebbles have the kittens, Shawn?”
A bit
uncomfortably, Shawn answered, “I think yesterday . . . or maybe last month. I
don’t remember.” Grace found that slipping her toes into her flip-flops took a
bit of concentration so she didn’t listen to Shawn very hard.
She
looked up only briefly when Shawn measured out a twelve-inch width with his
hands. “The baby is about this big,” he explained.
“Is
it really, really cute?” Grace asked, struggling to maintain her balance as I
brushed her tangled hair back into a ponytail.
“Yeah . . . but I’m not sure exactly whether the baby came out of Pebbles, actually. It might have come out of a different cat—I’m
not sure.”
“Wait
for me!” Halen yelled desperately from the top of the stairs. He leaped down,
two steps at a time. “Shawn,” he said breathlessly, “is it a boy kitten or a
girl kitten?”
“It’s
a boy!”
“Really?
How do you know?”
Shawn
looked around for answers and seemed momentarily distracted by the
disappointment he read in Grace’s eyes. “Actually, it might be a girl cat. I’m
not sure. I only found it yesterday. . .” His voice trailed off as the three
bustled out the door, and I caught the tail of a conversation change as Shawn
wondered aloud whether Halen and Grace would be interested in having some
cinnamon toast at his house.