Jerky

I could hear Puck getting frustrated in El Oso’s office. He had reluctantly passed the iPad over to Eddie so he could take a crack at the blue fuzzball that was Leopold, the newest computer game in Puck’s repertoire.

“No, no! Eddie, no! You can’t do it that way. Eddie… No, Eddie… No.”

Eddie was so deep in concentration, he couldn’t respond.

“Eddie, no! No, Eddie! … Sorry I have a bad attitude, Eddie. But you can’t do it like that else or you’re never going to win.”

“I know, dude… I know…”

When his session was over, Eddie passed back the iPad as Puck apologized once again for the animated fervor. Eddie just patted him on the back to let him know it was alright. Sometimes you don’t even have to intervene.

After lunch, Puck sat on the couch, contemplating his introduction to beef jerky at Anna’s and Eddie’s earlier that morning.

“Could we get some at the store today, Mom? Please? I had a good experience with it at Eddie’s house. I mean, once you have it, you just can’t resist another one.”

About two hours later we were driving home from the store, a bag of beef jerky clutched in Puck’s paws. He immediately began to lay out future weekly trips to the store for more beef jerky in great detail. By this point, it had been a long day, and I couldn’t really counterbalance these great hopes for the future with a dose of reality.

“Bud, just focus on today right now, okay?”

“I am focusing on today, Mom, and today is focused on beef jerky.”

Then he went back to his default, asking me about every two minutes on the road regarding rates of survival under this particular scenario. Every time we drive somewhere now.

“Could a man jump out of the car at this rate?”

More bikes, more scooters, more Anna and Eddie, more beef jerky – I had to finally confiscate that beef jerky before dinner, it was going too fast – and Anna and Eddie joined us for the meal. Eddie polished off two bowls of chicken and rice while Anna took care of the blueberries. Back outside. Summer just takes care of itself.