Ben There

Chapter 18
Mid-May; Dogs, Cars, Cake

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Chapter Description: There is trouble at the park, and there's a party at Benji's house.

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Mid-May; Dogs, Cars, Cake

"COME!!!"

"DOWN!! Stay!!"

Benji’s daddy had yelled that real loudly.

Benji put his arms around Laddie’s neck and said, "Bad girl." Then he wagged his finger in her face and added, "No fight in dog park."

To the woman running over to her dog, his daddy said, "I’m sorry. She has never done anything like that before."

The woman started looking over her dog and couldn’t find any broken skin, so she dropped from very angry down to totally irked.

On a retrieve Laddie had suddenly dropped her ball and gone from a lope into a sprint. Then she lunged at the woman’s dog. "At least the bitch comes when called," the woman said, which was something her dog apparently would not do. And her dog would have kept up the fight after Laddie was in a down-stay, if adult human legs hadn’t gotten between him and Laddie.

Benji’s daddy did a good job of staying calm. "Yes, well they both seem to be alright. I haven’t brought my son to the park lately, and you gave Laddie a real fright."

The ladies anger meter climbed. "I did what!?"

"You threw that ball right next to my boy. She just saw a huge dog charging towards him. Scared me too, until I saw your ball rolling right up to him."

The woman realized that she had done just that but wasn’t going to admit culpability. She said, "If she ever does that again, I’ll have her banned from the park."

Benji’s daddy managed a smile and said, "Fair enough, and if you ever do something like that again, the kid’s parents might not see the ball in time, and might very seriously hurt your dog."

Then he turned his back on her and said, "Puddin’head, it’s almost time to go. Would you like to swing for a little while?"

Benji said, "Uh-huh. Oh Tay," and started climbing into his new stroller that had thick wheels for going on the grass, and he asked, "Why Laddie fight?"

His daddy said, "She thought that big dog was going to hurt you, Pud’.

"Why?"

"Because he was running right towards you."

"Why?"

"Because that woman threw the ball close to you."

"Why?"

"She didn’t think."

"Why?"

"Just because."

"Oh...Laddie help me?"

"Yep. She sure did."

By this time he and his stroller were bouncing across the open ground because his daddy always went the right speed to make it jostle him just enough, and Benji said, "Wait! Wait! Stop!" and he climbed out of the stroller and gave his dog a huge kiss right on the lips.

His daddy smiled and picked him up and started helping him get back into the stroller, and Benji was sucking his thumb and knitting his little brow and he said, "Daddy? Will Laddie love me when I big again?"

"Of course! She always has!"

But she’d never fought for him before; that happened because he was little, and he could hug her and even sit on her now too. He could hug lots of people now and kiss them and get hugged back.

He said, "Daddy, I get big now?"

"Yep. You started yesterday afternoon, at the time you used to get your Friday shots. That’s when the Tuesday shot wore off, and I can already see the difference, big guy."

Benji couldn’t really process all that information at once any more, but ’Yep’, was all he’d need to hear. "When I all big again?"

"Not very long, Pudin’head."

"Oh." And that was not a happy sounding ’Oh’ at all.

Benji’s daddy said, "Let’s stop by the picnic tables and talk before we go to the swings, OK?"

"Oh tay."

As Benji stood on the picnic table next to his daddy, which put them almost eye to eye, his daddy said, "Are you real excited about your birthday party, Pud?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember how old you are today?"

"Six!"

"Well, buddy, sixteen in one way."

"Yeah. Big."

"Yeah. But not all big just yet."

"Yeah," Benji said and took a seat on Laddie’s back, and wrapped his arms around the dog’s neck, and the dog didn’t seem to even notice. "When big, daddy, can be little somethimes?"

"Sure. Sometimes. But why don’t you just stay little for a little while, Pud’?"

"Yeah??" He didn’t know that was possible.

"Sure! You are sixteen today, but don’t seem like it. Would you like to be three for a while?"

"I seem dat?"

"Uh-huh. Except you talk more than any three year-old. Well, except your sisters, they talked even more than you, and you talked this much the last time you were three too."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh. I think the trick is to not try to grow up too fast. That’s what we did the last time you were little."

"So I can be little?"

Benji’s daddy picked Benji up from off the dog’s back. Then he held Benji high in the air over his head. He said, "You certainly can, Benji."

Benji was laughing because he was so high. "I fly!" he said, then when he was back on the table he said, "How long be little??"

"Why not stay three for a year? That’s the way it’s usually done."

Benji did one of his sighs. He was felling very conflicted. He said, "But not drive?"

"You’re still going to have driving lessons this summer, puddin’head! I promised you that!"

"Am?"

"Sure. We’re going to a great big park with lots of rides. And they have cars with real motors that you will get to drive around a race track. You might have to sit in my lap, but I’ll teach you how to steer in your first driving lesson. Does that sound like fun?"

Benji smiled and put his finger on his daddy’s nose. "I can be little and still do big things?"

"’Uh-huh, sometimes. If you can be big and pretend to be little, you can be little and pretend to be big."

"Oh tay. And when be all big?"

"You can be sixteen for real in thirteen more years. OK?"

"That a lot?"

"Maybe just enough. If we don’t try to get there too fast."

"Oh."

"So how old are you, Pud?"

"Six-ten." That was a big number and Benji didn’t really grasp its size.

"But how old are you really being for now?"

"Twee?"

"Yeah!"

"And a halb!"

"No, Puddin’head, you can’t have a half on your birthday."

"Used to have a halb. I want."

"OK. You can have a half, but you have to keep it for a whole year then, OK?"

"Yeah; Oh Tay! Swing time?"

Benji could still get carried and pushed on the swings and hug and snuzzle and pretend to be little for a while longer. A year. However long that was. What a relief.

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All that Saturday morning, from the instant he’d come downstairs with his mama, had been a whirlwind swirling about Benji, and he’d had a hard time keeping up with everything. Everyone, well both his sisters, wanted lots of extra hugs, and kept saying, "Happy Birthday!" and calling him birthday boy, and telling him how big he was.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like the hugs, or the attention, he like both a lot! But it was hard to keep track and parts of it weighed heavily on his mind. Benji couldn’t remember his last birthday at all, and Kathy had had to remind him about presents, though he knew about the cake and candles from one of his picture books.

His daddy had seen the confusion and bewilderment, and that was why they went to the park that morning, to slow down for a while. But when they got home there was still lots going on and lots of excitement and lots to be excited about. Benji was very, very ready when his mama told him it was time to go upstairs for a snuzzle and a nap.

And even that time turned out to be different and busier than usual. As soon as he’d finished his meal and sat up in his mama’s arms, he saw that both Vicky and Kathy had snuck in while he was concentrating and were sitting by the door.

Vicky said, whispering, because she respected the special feeling that Benji had just then, "We have a special lullaby to sing to our birthday brother before his nap."

Benji leaned back on his mama’s naked breast and smiled at his sisters with his tongue poking out.

His mama asked, "Would you like to hear it, baby?" and he nodded.

"OK," his mama said, "But, Kathy, Benji left some milk. Would you like a little taste? Do you remember when you snuzzled? Puppy Dog, can Kathy have some?"

He slowly nodded his head. Benji always felt very magnanimous at times like these, though he might not have been willing to share his special times at all if he hadn’t just finished one. His somewhat wary, very curious, and brightly blushing sister put her mouth up to her mama’s tit for almost a minute while her former big brother stroked her hair.

When she stopped, she laughed and hid her head in her hands, and when her mama asked if it still tasted good, she nodded and pulled her tee shirt up over her face.

Then their mama said, "OK, Vicky. Your turn."

Vicky said, "MOTHER!" but she didn’t really raise her voice from a whisper; she just showed her shock with her tone.

Her mother smiled and said, "Maybe some time when it’s more private, I guess. But you’re right; it’s time to get this puppy down, or he’ll sleep through his own party."

Benji was laid on top of his bed covers, he wasn’t tucked under them at nap time, and Vicky and Kathy sat on the floor and sang in something close to two part harmony with feeling (of their on devising):

Close your eyes

Have no fear

The monster’s gone

He’s on the run and your sister’re here

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful bug

Before you go to sleep

Say a little prayer

Every day in every way

It’s getting better and better

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful Ben-ben

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy

We see you everyday, running every which way

We can hardly wait to see you all big again

But I guess, we’ll both just have to be patient

’Cause it’s a long way to go, a hard row to hoe

Yes, it’s a long way to go but in the meantime

you’re a puddin’, puppy, our little knight

So, hold our hands

Life is what happens to you

While you’re busy making other plans

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful Bug

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful Ben-ben

Before you go to sleep

Say a little prayer

Every day in every way

It’s getting better and better

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy

Darling, darling, darling

Darling Benjamin

I don’t know how they fit ’Benjamin’ into the space usually filled by ’Sean’, but Benji didn’t hear it anyway because he was sound asleep by then.

When he woke up, things had gotten worse -- or better. Everyone was still so busy! His sisters were wearing aprons, and he had to help stir and lick spoons. There was a huge pile of blue and yellow paper in the yard next to the swing set that he couldn’t touch yet. His daddy was in the back yard putting up paper lanterns and tiki lamps, and he had already started the charcoal burning in the grill.

But this was different than the morning had been. Then had been a whirlwind around him. Now there was a giant bubble of excitement screaming about his tummy, and the only way to handle the whole thing was find a new way to help, and then a newer way to get ready, and then another new way to get everything done, because if he didn’t keep busy, he’d POP!

And then, even though he did keep as busy as he could be, he still popped.

Well, he thought he was just going to pop, but Benji pooped. For the first time in ten years, he soiled himself. (True, he might have touched cloth a few times in those years, and the volume of those unfortunate farts might have been nearly as large as what had just happened too, but in relation to body weight this was more, and Benji was powerless to stop its coming once it had started. In terms of smell this might have been worse too but, more likely, Benji had forgotten how to act nonchalant and silently deny the smell was his. Instead he was standing in the middle of the room with his eyes wide, looking back and forth at everyone else.)

Kathy noticed first. "Ben-ben, Pew!! Did you pop your pants?"

Benji wagged his head back and forth with his mouth agape, but he didn’t expect to get away with this. Vicky patted his bottom which was still only covered by the Good’nites he had worn for his nap. She said, "He didn’t pop them; he wrecked them. Want me to go get him changed, Mom?"

"Sure, Vicky. His birthday outfit is on his rocking chair. Go ahead and get him dressed. Is the cake in the oven?"

"Yeah, only ten minutes to the first tooth pick test. Come on, Little Bug."

Benji was picked up by his one time little sister. As he was carried up the stairs, he rubbed one hand across his own bottom, feeling the squishiness of it all, while holding his nose with the other hand. He said, "Yuck. Bad accident, huh?"

"Yeah, a huge wreck, not just any old accident, Bug. But we’ll get you fixed up in no time."

"Nobody mad??"

"No way! These things happen to babies; especially very, very excited babies on very, very, very big days."

"I not baby though." He’d just been put down on his back on his changing table and pulled his knees up to his face, and Vicky was removing his dirty night pants.

Vicky kissed his toes and said, "Poof! Are too. Well, almost are too, anyway. You’re three years old today, Bug. That’s like on the edge of a baby, and you can be a baby still when you want. Mama, told me so!"

"I tree?"

"Uh-huh."

"Daddy say that. And Laddie fight for me!"

"Yeah. Must be so then. But it’s not forever, Benji."

"Know. Won year. That long, Bicky?"

"Kinda, Bug, but not real, real. Then you get to be four, then five. But three is neat because I can still do this." Vicky had to move Benji’s arm out of the way because he’d been playing with his wiener while she cleaned his bottom, and then she blew a very loud raspberry right into his bellybutton.

A giggling Benji said, "Oh tay. I be twee."

"Goodie. I love my baby bro so much. Did you see the puppy on these new overalls!! Look, it starts on the front goes around to the back. And feel its ears, Bug! COOL, or what?"

They were only overalls in the broadest sense. The legs barely got to his thighes, and the outfit wasn’t made of denim like all the overalls he’d worn a few weeks ago, nor did these have all those straps and hooks, rather they had two big white buttons on each shoulder and were cut like a sleeveless shirt with attached shorts. And the outfit was sky blue and had a yellow puppy on them who was smelling a dragonfly on the front, but his back legs and tail were on the back. The puppy had terry cloth ears, so they were really pettable, and the dragonfly had glossy wings too.

"Yeah, cool! And look, wings slippery too" Benji said as Vicky started putting his socks on him, and the socks also had dragonflies around the tops.

Benji also had new shoes for the day, red ones with lights that flashed in the heels with each step, and he jumped as he went down the stairs to make them shine bright, but he made Vicky hold both his hands as he did that because he knew stairs were tricky when one was the size he was just then.

When he got down stairs Amber and Danny and their parents were already there for the party.

He jumped into Danny’s arms but had the big boy put him into his girl friend’s lap. He was talking so fast and about so many things at once that Amber couldn’t follow him, but finally he got her to understand it was the ears on his shirt she was supposed to pet, not his own ears.

Then Danielle and Monique came in with there parents, and then Cyndi and her mommy and daddy. And when Peter got there with his little brother, Bobby, who took naps at school next to Benji, Benji and Bobby and Cyndi got to open that big pile of blue and yellow paper in the back yard, and they found a sand box under it. Soon even the big kids, Colin, Geoff, Monique, Kathy, and Peter were in the sand box too, well, they just sat outside it on the edges, but it room for them all. However, when Danny and Vicky and Amber and Danielle and Adam joined them, it got crowded and a game of Duck, Duck, Goose broke out and lasted until Benji’s Daddy suggested Benji open his second big present.

It was smaller than the sand box, but better. Benji got A Car!!! A Mercedes! A brand new sterling silver, or stainless steel, or just silver painted convertible one-seater, and Benji drove it all around the drive way three times all by himself. But when Kathy and Peter pushed him, he went even faster and had to take his feet off the pedals because they spun so fast.

Bobby started jumping up and down and yelling for a turn, and Benji was persuaded to share.

While Cyndi was being pushed by Kathy, he was being held by his daddy, and his daddy said, "Puddin’, is that car fun?"

"Yeahhhh!"

"I bet it’s better than a real car, huh?"

"Nah-uh!"

"You just don’t know about traffic, pudden’head."

"Nahh."

"Just pretend you’re driving a real car, OK? But you will have your driving lessons all too soon."

"Yeahhhhh!" Benji said. He couldn’t think of any thing bad about this being little stuff any more.

He got lots and lots of other presents too. Stuffed puppies and stuffed bears and even a stuffed little boy. And books and puzzles and robots, and Vicky and Kathy went in together on lots of new blocks to build big walls (for him to knock over) and castles and forts too.

At dinner there wasn’t room at the backyard table for everyone, and he got to sit on Amber’s lap, which was OK except she would wipe off his whole face every time he took a bite from his corn on the cob and wipe off his hands each time he touched his ketchup covered hotdog, which really slowed down his eating. Adam held Bobby, who he still called his best friend forever, and Colin, who wasn’t quite five himself, said he wanted to hold his old babysitter and tried to keep Cyndi in his lap, but that didn’t work, so he sat next to her and Danielle.

Then the cake came out! And everyone sang so loud that Benji put his fingers in his ears. After the usual birthday song, Danielle and Amber sang, "How old are you? How old are you? How oooolllld are you? How ol-ol-old is Benji today?"

Benji held up three fingers and yelled, "I dis many!!" Then he held his pinky-top down with his other hand and added, "And a hab."

Some people said, "No, not and a half. Just three."

"Use to have hab. Still do!" He said firmly, and no one argued about it.

Then he blew out the candles, with some help, and looked at his cake. You might have expected it to be decorated with dogs or cars, but it has a big, yellow twelve pointed star on it, and Benji said, "It venus!" He knew that, but didn’t know how he knew it.

His mama said, "It is, puppy. That’s the sign for a club we all belong to, called the Retrogradian Aide Society. You are one of our special members."

He could still count to three, but when he counted the candles there was one left over. "What dat for?" he asked.

"That’s the one to grow on," he was told.

"Oh, oh tay, but not too fast. Oh tay?"

"Oh Tay!" the whole crowd said.

THE END

 

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