by
JJ Davis
(Story loosely based on conversations during and after July with Grandson Jordan)
My brothers and me are the Seattle 3. I’m a poet and know it. Dad taught me that. My name is Jordan, but everybody calls me JJ or J. Sometimes we call my twin brother Ben, Bennie BenBen, and we’re 6, but Mom says I’m really older because I popped out first and fastest. We look different. I’m big and strong and Ben is strong but smaller. Garrett, our older brother is 8, and Baba calls him G-Man because he likes to think he’s a Superhero, but I think he’s too skinny and too smart. I don’t think the Superheroes can be very smart because they do a lot of stupid things. Baba is our grandpa and Ama is our grandma. When we were born, Dad says I looked like a balloon going to pop, and Ben looked like a worm. We look more alike now, but I’m still bigger and stronger than Ben.
My Brothers and Me
We have a small dog, Sprout. Sprout looks like a rat with big ears. We were on the beach a few weeks ago and the wind was blowing hard, and we were worried Sprout would blow away, so we tied his leash to a big log. Mom took a picture of Sprout with his big ears blowing. Dad said we couldn’t forget him because the tide would drown him. The second picture of Sprout is a selfie he took in the car.
Sprout on the beach
| Sprout Selfie |
This summer, our family stayed with Baba and Ama for what Baba said seemed like a lifetime, but it was only a month. Dad stayed only a week and then was suddenly called back to work by his boss. He said he had to go or he would lose his job and that would mean we would have to come live with Baba and Ama. When Baba heard Dad say that he asked him if he needed some gas money for the trip. Dad said he was an important “piece of the puzzle” which didn’t make any sense to me and my brothers because we work puzzles sometimes, and Dad does not look like a piece of puzzle.
Baba and Ama’s home is pretty big, but Baba says it’s not big enough when we visit. He says it’s just big enough for the Gates’ family gardener and their cat, Money, whoever the Gates family is. All I know is that G-Man and Ben and I had room to play with our Hot Wheels. Because of a dangerous disease, pandemic, we couldn’t play with other kids in the neighborhood, or go to the Zoo, or the Y, or museums, or movies. Baba said he asked some old friends of his how long they consider a normal visit from their grandkids especially when they like to go to bed at 8 o’clock. He says his friends told him about 3 days. He said they gasped and crossed themselves, whatever that means, and one even passed out when they heard that we were staying a month. I think he’s kidding. Besides, I think a month is too short when you’re having as much fun as we had. He told me that a good subtraction problem for me was 30 – 3. He said the answer would tell me how many days he will need to drink lots of Mr. T, his special medicine from Mexico.
We played in the house most of the time or in the backyard. Sprout and Ryder both pooped in the backyard and Mom or Baba had to clean it up before we could play out there. Ryder belongs to Aunt Tessa and Uncle Sean who live around the corner and Ryder is a black dog and big. He is happy even when we jump on him and tease him. Ryder likes Baba’s backyard more than Aunt Tessa’s yard for pooping because Aunt Tess only has stones. We think it’s fun to play dodge ball and see if we can keep from stepping in any poop or throwing the ball in poop.
Ben and Ryder
We love our Hot Wheels. We brought boxes of them with us for our visit. Baba says there must be billions of different models, and we have all of them. That would be great, but we don’t. We play car accidents with them, doing ramps and loop loops and bouncing them down the stairs or just throwing them at each other. We play with them in the garage, the bottom of the stairs and on the deck. They don’t work so well on grass and stones.
Baba says he has poor feral vision and bad balance. He says skateboarding on our cars early in the morning in the dark is not fun and could kill an old man. He wears a headlamp when it’s dark in the morning when he gets up to make coffee and write. He says he has to write before the sounds of revving monster cars and our screaming and running drive him crazy. Baba said he should have the hospital always on alert when we are visiting. Sometimes Mom forgets to remind us to put away the Hot Wheels before bed. Baba says each car hopes to be the lucky one to send him to the Promised Land. Wherever that is. He sounds like he would like that.
During July, Ben and I each lost a front tooth from the same place. Both in the front. They were tiny, but size doesn’t bother the Tooth Fairy. Mine came out first, and so I put it under my pillow with a letter to the Tooth Fairy asking her to be generous. Ama said that the Tooth Fairy always brought her a quarter when she was a little girl. I hope the Tooth Fairy has lots more money now. A quarter won’t buy one wheel.
When I woke up and looked in my envelope, I found $5. A few days later Ben lost his front tooth and the Tooth Fairy brought him $5, too. Garrett had some of his piggy money so Mom and Ama took us to Fred Meyers to buy some more Hot Wheels. I think the neatest one was Ben’s. Ben got one that rolls over and always lands on its wheels, so if it has an accident, nobody gets hurt inside. Only for tiny people. Just kidding.
After we returned to our home, Baba called and said he was finding Hot Wheels all over the house and garage and in the yard. When he was in the garage he found one on a high shelf, too high for us, when he was showing his friend something. He said he thinks it flew up there and wondered if he should mail the ones he finds under chairs and on the deck and on shelves and in his coffee. He said he gave it to his friend to give it to his wife and say to her, “Hey honey, I finally bought you that sports car you’ve always wanted.” That doesn’t sound true to me. Dad says that Baba is always telling stories, not just before we go to bed. Mom said she told Baba that it would be cheaper to go to Freddy’s and just get more because we will anyway when the next tooth comes out. Baba said OK, but he was thinking about going to Freddy’s himself to buy a Hot Wheels for himself. He said he might get an ambulance just in case.