Loves, Part Two: Shows

“An adventure in which a family of squirrels is saved from being died.”

“Daddy, Daddy, come on! Sit down. I’m going to do a show for you.” The playwright, director, and actor is my eldest daughter Sophia who at three years and six months of life is busy mastering the art of storytelling.

She stands in front of me looking up. Her smiling, blue-green eyes demand my attention. They are overflowing with joy. Sophia is not asking that I watch her show. It is a command. This is not optional.

“What kind of show are you putting on today?” I ask.

“Oh, it is about Lightening and Vanille going to rescue Hope, that boy, because, he, he’d lost himself in the forest and its full of scary monsters and exciting beasts. I have my Savior outfit on, see? Sit down. I’m going to start.”

I sit down on the bench. This bench was built by Laura’s father Earl. Its solid and sturdy and beautiful in its rough way. Laura grew up sleeping on this bench. It has a family history. I’ve kissed Laura many times here.

The bench is in our small living room. In the center a kid’s trampoline dominates the hardwood floor. Netting rises up from the trampoline forming a see-through castle wall. There is a half-circle door. Sophia expertly unzips it and climbs in.

Sophia’s Savior Outfit consists of a cowgirl vest and skirt, gifts from her Grandma Jill (my mother). Its blue denim, stars, and tassels bring to mind years of childhood games past. She’s wearing her green rubber rain boots, which have dragon faces on them. She is Louis L’Amour meets Tolkien, a glorious clash of myths topped with messy dark blonde hair.

“Ready Daddy?”

“Yes, start the show!”

Sophia jumps and twirls. She executes a full 360 and lands on her bottom, jumps back up, stands on one leg and launches into another half twirl. Her hands power in all directions moved by frenetic arms. Her capacity to move in awkward, yet beautiful ways is amazing.

I notice she’s in incredible shape. I’m fairly sure I could not move with that much energy and movement on a trampoline for 15 minutes, even stopping to catch my breath now and again like she does.

She tells a complete story during the show. Lightening and Vanille are in the forest going after Hope. These, by the way, are characters from Final Fantasy XIII, a video game she loves playing with me. Along the way they meet a dolphin, a giraffe, and a family of squirrels who are worried about being died. So Lightening and Vanille take a detour to save the squirrels from being died.

I lose the plot after this but at the very end there is a joyous reunion between Lightening, who is the mother, Vanille, who is the sister, and Hope who is the brother. They are all very glad to have found each other again and not one of them is died. Being died is a new concept to her, one she is aggressively working through.

Then, dramatically, a dragon swoops in and carries Hope off. Again. We’re always losing Hope and going after it. I swear I’m not making this up. This is not an intentional metaphor.

Its supper time Mommy informs us. Rescuing Hope will need to wait until bath time. Perhaps the Dragon took Hope out to sea? Sophia immediately picks up on the idea and soon she is lost in telling us about what her next show will be about.

Sophia, rescuer of Hope, I’m very much looking forward to it.