I’ve always wanted a locker

This is Maeve. She is very busy helping me make a big bowl of fruit salad. Do you see that locket around her neck? Here’s how she conned charmed me out of it. First, you have to know that she didn’t really know me from Adam’s house cat. Or housecoat, which spell-check thinks I mean. I’m her aunt, but we live far, far apart, and well…anyway, she visited last summer with her family.

We live in her late grandparents’ house, so we had to go have a look-around. We have a guest room that’s got some cool stuff in it, like a gothic revival bed, some really old and creepy dolls, and a bowl of costume jewelry. Maeve found a gold locket in the bowl, and declared, “Is this a locker? I’ve always wanted a locker. Can I have it?” Then, “Does it open?” Then, seeing my baby picture and my bronze shoe, also said, “And I want that picture in it.”

We agreed to work on that together, and started downstairs. She stopped in her little 5-year-old tracks and looked at me in earnest. “Do you live here?” Yes. “Hmm. If you die before my mom, I’ll have to put your picture in this locker. But if my mom dies first, I’ll have to put her picture in it.”

Pause.

“I’ll probably have to put your picture in it.”