justwrite 22 june

with a deep sigh I nearly swoon nearly trip over all those bits I meant to mix in there are parts of stories I will record here so they do not get lost the world is run by little girls is not the way to say it and thank heaven for little girls has already been used but here are a few pieces number one outside of the castle in Prague a newly married couple was posing for pictures and a little girl who was observing this thoughtfully solemnly remarked to her father that now these two were the new king and queen and what could he do but nod and I nodded also it seemed about right number two while on the bus this morning a pigtailed toddler or slightly more than toddler whatever that would be called was sitting beside me and when she suddenly announced that dad was calling her mother fumbled in her purse for her own phone only to realize that her daughter was answering her play phone in perfect seriousness the power of suggestion quite strong if a child says dad is calling why would she be lying of course it’s true and number three the vaguest behind my building on the street wrapped up in gardens a little girl was prancing along followed by her muscley and serious looking father who was carrying a tiny stroller of the babydoll variety and he had it in his hand quite above the ground obviously he wasn’t pushing it that’d be pushing it right but when she twirled around and presented him with some tiny bit of wonder in the palm of his hand he stopped and looked down at it and then at her and waited to find out what he ought to do next still clinging to the babydoll stroller with effortless certainty knowing that his task is to watch and to carry and to protect and to imagine that he could ever understand why this seed this coin this twist of paper is of such significance she has him in a trance and this is what they do these little girls they make believers out of their audiences yes we say they are the king and the queen and dad is calling and this is the most precious cherry pit in the world and it is pure magic and some of them some very few retain this quality and I met just such a woman yesterday or better to say I was in her presence I was waiting to buy cherries in search of the pure magic pit and there she was her head wrapped in a scarf and her cheeks bright with summer afternoon and she was proving beyond any doubt that these tomatoes these tomatoes from kherson if you just look you see this this is the ideal tomato the ideal tomato and I watched and I believed and I knew she was right the truth set free and hefted onto a scale