Behind closed doors

A story from Mommy.

Mommy is putting Asher down and Tahlia is playing in her room. Since we don't actually know, we often imagine what Tahlia does when she plays by herself in her room. We think that she is sitting in front of the castle, running through scenarios of various people's birthdays. Or, she is sitting in front of the white milk crate that is her book case reading about Corduroy at the beach, or the fairies, or the big red barn. But really, we don't have any idea. She could be climbing on the dresser. She could be performing open stitch surgery on her stuffed elephant.

Or what if it is as our wildest dreams depict it? What if, when parents are away, when those of us who have allowed our younger minds and beliefs to be replaced with the realities of bills and deadlines, when children are alone in their rooms, the toys come to life as depicted in stories? What if she is dancing with her teddy bear who does not need her to hold its hands to polka around the room? What if there really is a fairy, much like the fairies we always profess will come and sit on her pillow while she sleeps, who is playing with her and sprinkling fairy dust in her shoes?

Of course, there never is any evidence of this. It seems that whether Mommy or I am watching her or not, her room always looks like gale force winds and a major tropical storm has struck.

But maybe we aren't looking closely enough. Maybe we are allowing our preconceived notions of what is and isn't possible to cloud what is really occurring.

This is where Mommy's story ties in.

As she was putting Asher to bed, she watched as Tahlia dashed out of her room; a look of awe and possibly fear on her face. Her arms were pumping as it seemed to be a matter of life or death to expeditiously exit her room. Mommy watched as Tahlia peered with saucer sized eyes over the shoulder closest to Asher's room. Then, the object of dread, the object that created this exodus came rolling out a fraction of a second behind her. A blue ball chased her heels.

Now, we can all rationalize the situation. Obviously she had thrown the ball at the wall, or some place else, and it bounced off. Engrossed in her game, she decided, rather than stopping to pick up the ball, to flee from it. The trajectory was such that the only route for Tahlia to take was out the door, or else, the ball would catch up to her. The impact was great enough to allow the continued rolling of the ball even though the friction of the carpet was great.

It all makes rational sense. The above clearly has to be the explanation.

But what if. . . what if Tahlia, the blue ball, the elephant, the monkey, Little Esme (the Fisher Price toy), Little Mommy and Daddy (again, the Fisher Price figures -- a queen and king), a sheep Weeble, and possibly DogDog and Panda were all playing tag? What if the blue ball was "it" and needed to catch Tahlia? What if, although Mommy may deny this, even though a ball rolling from a bounce off of a wall should slow down when it is on a shag rug, was actually gaining speed in an attempt to no longer be "it?"

We can all believe our stories, but I'd like to believe that Tahlia was legitimately running out of that room because she was involved in a crazy game of tag.