Prolifically Raw: Abaracadabarapumpkinpie

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Abaracadabarapumpkinpie

�I am going to do the most amazing magic trick, in the world,� Jo announces.

She swings a leg over the edge of the hot tub and climbs out, naked as a Jay. Sliding across the rain slick wood of the porch, she makes her way to the grass and chooses a wilted fig leaf that�s fallen from the tree.

�Are you ready, this is the most amazing leaf disappearing you will ever see?� she says.

�I�m ready,� I say.

I am in the water, arms on the sides of the tub, enveloped by the steam.

Jo waves the soggy leaf in the air with a flourish and says, �abaracadabarapumpkinpie!�

She throws the leaf on the ground again.

For a moment, I wonder, is that it? Is there more she�s going to do?

Her arms raise and she says �ta daaaa!!"

It is now my turn to pull a little of my own magic out.

I look up, I look down, I look around, hoping my expression is just the right amount of concern, confusion and amazement.

Jo giggles with delight and does a little jump.

�Wanna see it again?� she says.

�Of course, I do,� I say, as if nothing would give me greater satisfaction.

She goes through the whole act again, and again, and again and each time her delight is complete as I perfect my own facial gymnastics.

Finally Spencer gets wise to the fact that we are in the tub and abandons Saturday cartoons to be with us. Swimsuit replaces p.j.�s and he races through the rain, splashing in like one of those happy labs.

I immediately pull him into my conspiracy.

�Jo�s doing magic,� I whisper, �here�s the deal, after she throws the leaf down, you look up, you look down, you act completely amazed and confused at the same time, you might try to clap too.�

It�s a high wire act with these two. There�s no way to know which way it�s going to go. That�s the five years that live between them�good in one way because I have had so much good time to enjoy each of them as small children, bad in another because they have so little in common. Everything she does is so �girlie� and �baby� to him and everything he does is so �big� and �boy� to her.

What is their common ground?

When she was a baby, he was the only one who could make her laugh. He�d also hold her on his chest while she slept and for a while, he loved to change her diapers.

Now she�s older and has become a competitor and the contest is for my attention. The dynamic doesn�t make the two of them, together, much fun but sometimes, every now and then, when they aren�t competing, I get to recruit Spencer as I am doing now but it�s always a crap shoot, will he go along or will he roll his eyes and refuse to conspire in the game of enjoying and encouraging her?

Jo goes through the whole act again, leaf up, �abaracadabarapumpkin pie,� leaf down, �tadaa,� with arms up in the air.

Spencer looks at me and I�m deep into my whole looking up, looking down, looking completely amazed thing and he trumps my act by swimming across the tub, searching over the side. He throws his head back, as if the leaf is floating over his head and finally tosses his own hands into the air, his voice big and full of wonder.

�That was absolutely astonishing Jo, where did it go?�

Spencer looks my way, dramatic wink so I know he�s completely in and Jo�s face glows with happiness, that smile going all the way into her eyes and it is one of those rare and wonderful moments of perfection�more magic than you can ever hope for in this life.