a story for you

Yesterday, Ana found the pit of an apricot on the ground, which started a discussion on squirrels. She then told me the following story. I wish I could record her expressions and voice inflection. My interjections are in italics.

There was a little girl squirrel and I gave her this nut. And she ate the pit and it was so yummy. She had a mommy and a daddy and a sister. What are their names? They are both named Ana. And I slept over there. Cuz I have a crib there. And then it got windy. No, rainy. Did you get all wet? No. Why not? Cuz we all had umbrellas….

[She got distracted for a minute, but then a few minutes later...]

Let’s talk about the baby squirrel again.

Once upon a time, there was a baby squirrel. And I brought it home. And it was so tiny. And I gave it this nut, and it ate the pit and it was so yummy in her tummy. And then we had a sleepover at your house. And we slept in the big bed. And when we woke up, it was Sunday. What did you do on Sunday? We went to church. And there was a doctor there. Really? Yeah, and somebody died. Oh no, that’s sad. Yeah, but it came back. There was one in their tummy and it got bigger and bigger. And I had a cat and a dog. But they liked the squirrels. And I had lots of animals. And two squirrels came to our house. And they rode on a bicycle. And they wore helmets. And then a man gave them to me. And he opened the door, and I said, “Thanks, Man.” And then I fed this nut to a squirrel. It was a baby squirrel. Then the guy fed it to the squirrel. No the guy didn’t feed it to the squirrel, I did. And I fed the mama ones and the baby ones and the daddy ones. And I fed the cat catfood so the cats didn’t get ‘em. And a weirdo dog liked this [referring to the pit] and he ate it all in his tummy.

That was the end. I then had to go outside and move the water on the lawn, but she carried that pit around for a long time. I just had to write it down.