Lifetimes Ago

Tonight as I was reading S a bedtime story, I was reminded of something that happened when C was just her age.

We were reading No, David! by David Shannon. Brilliant book. A few pages in is the illustration of the main character's bare bum running down the street. The words for that page are, "Come back here, David!"

About 8 years ago, while we were still living in the south and I was a few months pregnant with M, my sweet husband encouraged me to sleep in. He would wrangle our then 3-year-old C for the early morning. I appreciated the offer and fell right back asleep.

Sometime later, I awoke to a voice in the side yard. We lived in an end unit in a complex of townhouses, and voices actually were not common. I rose from the bed and tried to look out the window, but the angle wasn't right (there were no windows on the side of the townhouse, only front and back). The voice was not quite decipherable, but it was still out there.

I went downstairs and no husband and son. Huh.

Then I opened the back door near the side yard and heard very clearly, "Come back here, David!" in my husband's voice. I was very confused.

I stepped out onto the patio and looked around. There was C running around the side yard stark naked, and my husband calling after him.

They were playing, "No, David!"