Saturday morning play dates

It all started with a dog about the size of a kitten, with a voice the size of three dogs. Akira, like most Mexican dogs, is allowed to run free in the parking lot chasing cats, and when I spotted her I fretted, gringo-style, about her safety. Soon I was talking with her owner M.,  a ten-year-old angel , daughter of my schoolteacher neighbors. Then one evening her mom and I had a backyard chat. There are four kids in the family, the youngest only five, and they all spend the entire day at the school, year-round except for holidays. Mom has no maid to clean the house, and though Dad does pitch in with the cooking and laundry, she has very little free time.

So last Saturday M. came over while the parents were at work, and we spent the morning brushing our dogs, and walking rescue dogs at the nearby kennel. I bought Akira a real dog collar and we found that she takes to the leash very well.

While I was fixing lunch, I could tell M. was shyly trying to make a request, so I stopped and asked her, "What would you like to do?" And she knocked my socks off with her reply: "Can I check my email?"


This Saturday she came over to join me for a grocery shopping expedition and her first guitar lesson on a little pink guitar. We covered tuning and the chords A, E and D, which I assured her would be all she'd need for many songs. She wants to bake lasagna, make clay sculpture, learn to sew, play American rock and roll songs... she brings out my inner ten-year-old.


Best of all, I'm getting to know my neighbors. M's mom speaks English and has already offered to help me with my Spanish.


So maybe it won't be quite such a loss when the snowbirds fly away over the next couple of weeks. I'll just invite M. over for a guitar-and-lasagna session.