I am loving the vivid imagination of my 4-year-old The stories that he weaves are part magical and part hysterical. Here is this morning’s one.

As I lazed on my bed this morning, somewhere in the region of delicious half awakeness, I heard the urgent pitter-patter of little feet. They were loud as they passed by my door and then softer as they scattered around the house. Little A had woken up. I knew something wasn’t right.  I nudged my husband sharply, “Go look at what your son is doing” and buried back into my pillow. He left reluctantly to investigate. I heard animated voices outside. At length, my husband came back in.

“You want to know what your son has done?” he asked shaking his head. (I knew that was coming back to me)

He proceeded to tell me that when he had stepped outside he had found little A in a corner looking funnily at him.

“Remember that look when they had a gift for us in their diapers?”, my husband reminded. I groaned and sat up. “Of course”, I said and waited. This is what had transpired.

It had so happened that last night we had gone to one of our frequented restaurants. While paying the bill an overzealous staffer had handed a candy to each of our two sons. They were the long slender cylinder-shaped ones. The ones that are filled with the little tablet like pastel-colored pieces stacked on one another. We failed to intercept on time and the boys had pocketed their treasures. As soon as we sat in the car Little A had opened the wrapper and emptied the contents into his mouth. Big S, on the other hand, chose to eat just two small pieces from his and saved the rest for later.

The candy must have featured heavily in Little A’s dreams. As soon as he woke up, he felt called to action. When he realized the rest of the household was still asleep he decided to grab the opportunity. He rushed to the kitchen where his brother’s candy lay unsuspectingly on the table. He grabbed it and gobbled it up, careful to leave two last small pieces in it. When he heard his Dad approach, he hurried to a corner.

“What did you do?” my husband accosted him.

Nearby, the wrapper stared mutely at them.

When his smiles didn’t deter his Dad, little A confessed

“I was walking and something fell from the sky. It hit my head so I opened my mouth. The candy fell inside!”