Sunday, February 26, 2006

A Conversation About Ollie

This morning, as my mother-in-law listened, my two-and-a-half-year-old and I had an interesting conversation. Within three seconds, I reached for my luckily-nearby digital voice recorder and captured it. While I won't transcribe it verbatim due to time constraints, I'll try to recapture the spirit (...sorry...) of the exchange.

She told us about Ollie, how he lives sometimes behind the door outside (potting shed) and sometimes she sees him in the downstairs hallway. She doesn't like him at the moment. He makes her feel like crying because Mummy doesn't hear him. (I have to assume she feels alone and afraid because she is not sharing this experience with me). He calls her by her first and last name.

At some point, my mother-in-law decided to ask a question. I don't know if she was just trying to make light of the situation, but here's what she asked:

"Does he say 'boo!' to you?"

"No, " my amazing little girl explained. "Ghosts don't say 'boo'. Children say 'boo'." Then, my daughter laughed because she found my mother-in-law's suggestion funny.

Well, I asked her to tell Mummy when she sees him or when he speaks to her. I also explained that, if she felt uncomfortable, she could ask him to leave her alone.

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