Saturday, July 07, 2007

Don't Hurt a Forest Troll's Feelings


Camping the other day, hanging out around the campfire, a little old lady walked through the edge of our large wooded campsite carrying a folded up tent in a carrying bag.

"A forest troll!" Luke shrieked loudly. Certainly loudly enough that the woman, as well as many other campground neighbors, surely heard. "A forest troll carrying a bomb case!"

We were feeling well embarassed when Luke added, as if for good measure, "Eeww! Gross! The troll is so tiny and wrinkled!"

The ensuing discussion, I think, did make an impression on Luke. The impression that he is supposed to talk quietly about forest trolls carrying bomb cases. One might hurt someone's feelings. But nothing seemed to dissuade Luke from his belief that this was a troll. And we focused on the hurting feelings issue more than the species of the creature.

The next day, when we were visiting with Wade Hampton Miller after hitting his bus, Luke, ever the social butterfly, threw into the conversation that he had seen a forest troll carrying a bomb case the day before.

"Do you have lots of imaginary friends?" asked the musician/bus driver.

"It wasn't imaginary," Luke said in a stern and deadly serious voice. "And it wasn't my friend."

4 comments:

Julia said...

I read this one out loud to Jeff and we both laughed our heads off. Let's just hope that forest troll has an equally good sense of humor.

Jenny said...

Ser,

This is a wonderful, ticklish post. I'm so glad I'll be able to stay close to you and your kids through your blog, even as you go . . .

Jen

Unknown said...

What is up with Luke in this picture? Oh, Luke, I miss you!

Lhamo Osel said...

I am home sick and laughed so hard at this post that I am crying while typing. You can be darn sure my kid went to school before I vegetated for the day. I can just picture Luke saying it; I will bookmark this post for when I need cheering up.