Grammy Ronni opened her door only to find Jonathon and Mr.
Piddles!
“What are you two doing here? I thought your dad wasn’t
dropping you off until this evening?” Grammy Ronni had been working on a new
scarf for her neighbor when she had heard a knock at the door.
“Well, we decided we wanted to come earlier! I have some homework
I need to work on and a new coloring book that Mr. Piddles and I want to break
in.” Jonathon had his favorite, large stuffed polar bear tightly wrapped in his
arms.
“Oh, well, come on in! I just need to move my yarn out of the
way and the dining room table is all yours.” Grammy Ronni had been storing her
large basket of yarn supplies on top of the table to make sure she didn’t accidentally lose any. She quickly picked up the basket and moved it to beside
her couch. “There you go, boys! Let me know if you two need anything!” Grammy
Ronni had grown accustomed to just hearing Jonathon’s side of conversations,
but knew that Mr. Piddles was very real to her grandson.
“Thanks, Grammy!” Jonathon took off his backpack and sat Mr.
Piddles in the chair next to him. “Okay, Mr. Piddles, now we can start working on
our math homework. The worksheet Ms. Hawkins gave us is pretty tricky.”
Jonathon began to pull out papers and pencils.
“Um, I think you mean your math homework. Polar bears do not
need math skills. We rely on instinct!” Mr. Piddles crossed his arms and
snorted towards the worksheet.
“Well, I have to get these multiplication charts down and I
could use your instincts! So, what is 4 times 6?” Jonathon turned towards his
pal. Grammy Ronni waited to see what the boy wrote down, fully knowing it would
not be 24.
“Well… My nose tells me it must be 43! And my nose is never
wrong.” Mr. Piddles grinned, proud of his intellect.
“Oh, well, that makes perfect sense!” Jonathon eagerly wrote
down the answer provided and continued to work on the worksheet for another
hour with Mr. Piddles as Grammy Ronni continued to work on her knitting, all while
listening to her grandson irrationally pluck numbers out of thin air for his
math homework.
Soon it was evening and Grammy Ronni decided she should go collect her mail.
Soon it was evening and Grammy Ronni decided she should go collect her mail.
“Jonathon, why don’t you and Mr. Piddles come walk with me
to get my mail? You could play outside for a bit too. It seems to be nice
weather!” Grammy Ronni was a large proponent of children getting lots of
outdoor playtime.
“Okay, we just finished coloring a picture for you!”
Jonathon tore out the picture of a big brown bear from his coloring book. “Here,
you can hang it up on the fridge!” Jonathon picked up the picture and Mr.
Piddles and walked towards the front door. Grammy Ronni collected the picture
and hung it up at the top of her fridge, front and center.
Jonathon and Grammy Ronni walked outside and noticed some
other children playing outside.
“Grammy, Mr. Piddles and I are going to go play with them!
Is that okay?” Jonathon turned towards his grandmother and waited for an
answer.
“Sure, just stay in sight of my house, okay?” Grammy Ronni
was glad that Jonathon could make some new friends.
“Thanks!” Jonathon ran over with Mr. Piddles in his arms. “Hi!
My name is Jonathon, and this is Mr. Piddles, my stuffed polar bear.” The
children turned to face them and immediately stared at Mr. Piddles.
“Can we touch your polar bear?” The kids all ran towards
Jonathon to try and grab Mr. Piddles.
“NO! He doesn’t like to be touched by strangers!” Jonathon quickly
pulled Mr. Piddles in towards his body.
“Hey, Jonathon, I think we should leave. These kids don’t seem
very nice…” Mr. Piddles turned his face up towards Jonathon and tried to bury
his eyes.
“It’s okay, Mr. Piddles, we just need to get to know them
better. If we treat them with love and respect, they will treat us the same way. But I think we have done enough for today.” Jonathon ran back to Grammy
Ronni as she was walking back towards her house.
“Hey, Grammy, the kids didn’t seem very nice so we’re going
to wait until we can meet them individually. Mr. Piddles didn’t feel safe
around all of them.” Jonathon opened the door for his grandmother and quickly
shut it behind them.
“Oh, okay. Next time you come over maybe we can invite one
of them over for you to meet?” Grammy Ronni had forgotten how shy her grandson
could be. As well as how attached he was to his stuffed polar bear.
“I like that idea ,Jonathon. We could handle them two on one.”
Mr. Piddles snarled to show that he wasn’t afraid.
“Yeah! Mr. Piddles and I think that would be great!”
Jonathon sat back down at the dining table and began to color a chameleon.
Grammy Ronni returned to her knitting and wondered what they would do for
dinner.
 |
| The Two Pigs |
Author's Note:
I read the Jataka Tales written by Noor Inayat this week and was inspired by one story in particular, The Two Pigs. In the story a woman takes in two baby pigs she finds outside her home, much like Grammy Ronni taking in Jonathon and Mr. Piddles. The two pigs grow up and eventually the townspeople want to eat one. The woman tells them no until they get her drunk and then she tells them that they can have one of the the two. However, the two pigs realize they are in danger and the pig that was chosen to be eaten is saved by the king asking for them to be his advisors due to the older pig's wisdom in the situation. I wanted to put a twist on the story by having Jonathon and Mr. Piddles be the two pigs and playing with children be their situation with the villagers. I liked having them interact with the neighborhood this week, and may try to explore that further.
