Dear Reese,
It’s the first day of spring. And a snow day. Daycare is closed with the school district so we pivot and you spend the day with MorMor (and Cappi when he gets home from work mid-afternoon). When I come to pick you up you’re in the bunkroom with Cappi, kids’ music playing, and a teething cracker wrapper in your mouth — something for you to gnaw on.
You’re not feeling the best today. MorMor said you woke up from your afternoon nap a little off. I take your temperature when I get there and you don’t have a fever, but it’s elevated. There’s a little more sneezing, a little snot, and you are grumpy in a way that I know something hurts. Maybe it’s just more teething. I am now a mom who keeps Tylenol always within reach. It’s grape-flavored and you gulp it without a fight.
The medicine kicks in enough that you and Merlin have fun playing with a box and packing paper when we get home. Though I have to pull pieces of it out of your mouth before you swallow. I’ve been doing that a lot with you and paper lately.
Once I rinse the shampoo from your hair, we pick up our story — The Great Bullfrog has been taken, the black swan has destroyed the castle in the pond, and you’ve teamed up with your once foe, The Fierce Croc, to go to the beaver dam where you hope to find and free The Great Bullfrog.
The Fierce Croc and your duck friend wait outside while you shimmy your way into the beaver dam. There is no entrance to the dam, just packed sticks and narrow openings. When you first enter there is light from the gray morning filtering through but you can see how quickly it disappears. Luckily, you have eyes accustomed to navigating in the dark.
You go deeper — you don’t know where this prison is but your instincts say to head for the center. Wherever that might be. As you navigate a narrow path water drips down your face and stray sticks scratch your arms.
[Here, I tell you to make a Wisdom Saving throw, like we are in a D&D game. Since we don’t have dice we decide to flip your crocodile bath thermometer. If it lands belly-down, you pass the save. If it lands belly-up, you fail. We flip it, it bounces on the water, and then lands belly-up.]
You begin to panic. The dark of this place feels suffocating. You don’t know if you’ll ever find your way out.
Then, you think of the duck waiting for you outside — a good and true friend. And then you think of The Great Bullfrog, who is alone and needs help. Finally, you think of what brought you to the castle in the pond in the first place. Your family. You are here to help them and you need The Great Bullfrog’s gift to do so.
This thought bolsters you and you are able to move forward with a clear head once more. You lost time there, though. Have you been walking for minutes or hours?
You come to a split in the path and decide to take a route that goes down, to what you hope is closer to the center. Then, up ahead, you hear something. Scritch. Scratch.
Someone is moving up ahead.
You approach stealthily and from a hiding spot see a beaver eating a piece of bark for breakfast. The beavers must know this place better than anyone, but you don’t know where their loyalties lie. The black swam was imprisoned here, but no one knows how he got out . . .
[I put two toys on the bathtub ledge for you. Touch the duck if you trust the beaver. Touch the shell if you don’t. You reach towards the shell but hesitate and pull back, touching neither.]
You decide to wait and watch. While you hang back a second beaver approaches.
“Dark times,” the second beaver says.
“It’s always dark in here,” says the first beaver, taking another bite of bark.
The second beaver gives a harumph. “You know what I mean. I can feel the black swan’s power even here.”
“What does that matter to us?”
“It should matter a great deal.”
Here, you reveal yourself [you reach for the third toy I place on the ledge]. They do not seem like enemies and maybe they can help. “Please,” you say, “I’m looking for The Great Bullfrog. I want to set her free.”
The beavers look at you, surprised. The second one speaks first. “No one can find her, little one. Only those who are imprisoned know where the prison lies in this maze.”
And that gives you an idea.
Love,
Mama