Dutch and Audrey spent all morning clearing the back lot... At sunset, after naps, he came inside and said he wanted to show me something... we wandered down the makeshift path, past dozens of purple prickly pears, palo verde and mesquite trees, and scattering 4 or 5 quail who were meandering through the brush until finally we arrived at a thirty by fifty foot patch of fresh dirt, soft and fine as powder.
"Here it is," Dutch said. "This is where the house will be..."
I shook my head, half-amused, half-dismayed.
He showed me where the dining room and bedrooms would be... From the kitchen there would be a view of the Catalina mountains... from the living room, a glimpse of the sun as it sank behind the Santa Ritas.
"It's pretty," I said. "It's just - such a big project."
"I don't ask you to stop writing stories..."
"No," I said. "And it would be cruel of me to ask you not to express yourself creatively... It's just, I don't exactly ask you to live in my stories."
"Oh, but you do, in a way."
I burst out laughing. "I see there is no use trying to reason with you."
"Hey!" Audrey suddenly interjected in a shrill ecstatic whisper, "Guys. Daddy gonna build a castle!"
"You want Daddy to build a castle? Here?"
"Yesss. For Nanny."
"A castle? For Nanny?"
"Yess. Daddy gonna build a castle and Nanny gonna come and live here."
Ah, the world through a 2-year-old's eyes. It gave me a boost of something like inspiration. Or perhaps consolation. Or both. "Now," I said, "that would really be something."
2 comments:
Can I live in the castle, too, Audrey?
Of course, Pop. No castle is complete without a king. :)
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