He's Colombian
Before I left for the school office that morning, I left Yali dancing around in circles eating a graham cracker at the Big House. Fortunately for this little adopted niño, he never seems too bothered if I deposit him at various family members’ homes while I help monitor the lunch line or answer phones during staff meeting.
About two and a half hours later after answering exactly one phone call from the Art teacher and administering two Junior Tylenol tablets to a 4th grader – my good deeds of the day had clearly been done – I departed school for the Big House.
Yali was crusted in flour and cookie batter. A sign of good times had.
“We made chocolate chip cookies,” Carrie-Bri explained. “He even wore a little apron.”
She packed him two for the road, one to share with Puck.
It was another somewhat mild afternoon on the playground. With Heidi down and out with the flu, it was Snicky who instead joined us for about half an hour of fun times on apparatus designed more for five year-olds and less for eight year-olds.
One of their classmates yelled from his car as he prepared to drive away in the carpool line.
“PUCK! I INVENTED A NEW WORD!”
“WHAT IS IT?!”
“LOOK-OUT-FOR-YALI!”
I’m not sure if that was the actual word in question, or if he was truly warning Puck about his little brother about to chase him down, but either way, between the two of them my ears were ringing. Meanwhile, Snicky got busy with his own sideshow, running back and forth in front of Yali who was clearly enjoying the entertainment.
“HE’S COLOMBIAN!!” Snicky bellowed. “AND HE’S WATCHING ME!! AAAAAAH!!”
I guess Yali will just manage to scare people before he meets them. All they need to hear is the word “Colombian”. We were warned about that by our interpreter back in South America.
“They left me alone when I was in the U.S.,” he said. “They didn’t want to mess with me when they knew I was Colombian.”
For a kid who may not top five-three, this might not be a bad reputation to milk.
That night I spent my free hours mired in paperwork for finalizing the adoption Stateside. Always one more sheet to edit and sign.