The matter of the day was the subject of fat animals.
“What do you mean, Joebie?” asked Little Miss.
“You know, sweet pea, the fat animals, like hippopotamus and cows and bears just before winter.”
“So animals that are big?”
“Well, I wouldn’t count an elephant in the taxonomy of fat animals. They’re big-boned. A rhinoceros is sort of in-between.”
“Ah.”
“So I’d say a manatee is a fat animal, and pigs, are fat animals, and whales, and—”
“—and Joebies!” added a certain about-to-be-in-trouble child.
I raised an eyebrow, accompanied by a giggle from about two feet below the origin of my baleful gaze.
“You are aware, hon,” I said, “that one day your prom date will arrive at the door to pick you up, and it’s possible that I will open that door, right?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“And let’s just say I might be in a very…shall we say…”chatty” mood? Do you get me?”
“You’re my favorite fat animal, Joebie-bear,” she said, and gave me a great big destabilizing hug.
A very chatty mood indeed.
©2021 Joe Belknap Wall