I don’t get it! Honestly, I didn’t try anything. But I just don’t get it. Do I sound funny to you? I’m not running amock with a stick tickling everyone. So, what’s the matter with her? Why she keeps on laughing? Why is this such a matter of enjoyment for her? Do you have any clue?
I was talking about my niece. Although, she’s a happy-go-lucky kid, trolling around and pranking with everyone. There’s one thing that she doesn’t ask anybody else to do. She asks for hugs, rather comically, from us. Yea, you should hear her asking for that, you’ll start laughing and will eventually hug her due to her persuasive skills. If you become pals with her, be sure you two will have banters and she will be roasting you like a whole chicken grill; that only means she likes you very much. But what is that particular thing that she only asks from me and me only?
“Read it to me,” she says in quite an adorable way. I ignore her intentionally, just to tease her for some time. You can say, I enjoy it when she asks something from me. She has a routine, she’ll ask, and then she’ll pout and make typical puppy-eyed expressions. “Please, please, please Bubbie read it to me, please!” Yea, that’s what she calls me - Bubbie. And she jumps on me. You may think that this 10 years old kid will behave a little maturely but no. When she wants something, she will become a 3-years-old in front of you and will send all the cutest faces towards you; oh sir, you’re trapped.
So, now I’m trapped. It’s 12:30 at night and she wants me to read her Tintin and talk like how Haddock, Calculus, and Tintin were talking, the whole gist. What have I gotten myself into? She has classes in the morning and I too have an office to go to but who cares; she needs to hear me narrating 5 or 6 pages and she will have it. There’s no other way around it.
Blistering Barnacles. She’s snorting like a maniac. At first, she asks me to just recite one page. When I finished with it she requests me to read another, then another. Would you look at the time? It’s 1:17 am and I was done hilariously narrating 7 pages; and more later. Even though it will cause a minor annoyance to me at first but I’ll give in to her demand; then I’ll be an amusement for both of us. I tell you, she’s already done reading these books, but you know kids have that favorite book which they want to be read aloud, if they like you and get close to you they’ll ask you to read stories from that book. But not her, reading and telling stories is something she shares only with me regardless of which book it is.
To her, I’m not her aunt; I’m rather a friend who is just taller than her. That’s how she has always seen me; her friend, her playmate, one who heeds to her childish whims, the one she wrestles with. Her overgrown BFF - Bubbie; a rather amusing title. I have never been a superb storyteller; but if I have a story to tell, I know I’ll have one audience who’ll listen with much enthusiasm.
