Packing and moving...

Simone helped the little guy into the car, set him up with a movie then headed down to Grandma's house. Grandma's house sold and, within the next few weeks, she will be moving to her new home. In the meantime, she needs help with this, that and the other thing. And on this day, it was Simone's turn to help, something she gladly did because Grandma is a wonderful person and Simone enjoys her company very much.

The thing about moving is that one finds treasures, mementos, pictures, letters, old Christening gowns... And everyone falls into a hallucinating pattern of remembering. Little B, having been given a box of Scrabble letters to play with, proceeded to slide them into crevices and corners all over the house, sometimes with the help of a silver handled walking stick Grandma pulled out of the hallway closet.

While Grandma and Simone emptied the hutch and carefully wrapped the delicate figurines, little B pulled out a wooden duck and "swam" him on the kitchen floor. If the duck happened upon some Scrabble letters, little B stacked them on the duck's back and "swam" them back to their box.

"What about ugly doll?" Simone asked. Ugly doll is a life size toddler doll whose face is screwed up in an "I'm about to cry" expression. You can almost hear her whining. For some unfathomable reason, Grandma loves this doll.

"Ugly doll is coming with me," Grandma said firmly.

When the box was stuffed with more tissue paper, Grandma put the lid on it and Simone wrote, using one of those smelly black markers that kids used to try to get "high" on but only got headaches from, "FRAGILE" and "THIS SIDE UP" and "TOP" at the appropriate spots.

Grandma excused herself to use the facilities.

"Quack!" said little B, drawing nearer to the fragile box with the wooden duck.

"Nice duck," said Simone, winking at him.

"Nice uck," confirmed little B. Then, before Simone could stop him, little B sat on the box marked "FRAGILE". Simone winced but no telltale cracking sound ensued.

"Off! Off the box!" she whispered urgently to little B.

"Uck," said little B, complying.

"Sure, play with the duck," Simone said.

"Alright," said Grandma, returning from the washroom. "What's next?"

"Got any duck tape?" Simone joked.

"Whats that?" Grandma replied, understandably confused.

"Um, nothing. Let's keep moving. Shall we do your closet next?"