We were waiting in Middlebury, Indiana. Our RV was in the repair center again and so our family set up camp in the cool internet-filled space of the library. Being an autodidact and an avid reader at the same time, this was a difficult space to be in, but I was resigned to my fate. I was staring blankly at my computer screen trying to come up with a good enough excuse to stop working and start reading when a little girl came up to me with her eyes wide and her mouth open. It took me an embarrassingly long moment to realize that she wasn’t staring at me, but at the computer next to me.
“Is that a compooter?” She asked in breathless amazement. Oh, if only the written word could truly portray the shocked expression on her face, the cuteness of her lisp, the way her jaw looked like it was about to fall off.
“Yes, it is.”
Silence.
“What’s your name?”
“Deanna. I’m 5.”
She was so small, her vibrant dress and long dirty-blond hair making her look even smaller.
There was proper etiquette here and so I aptly obliged.
“I like your dress. It’s very pretty.”
She didn’t even look down.
“It is. I picked it.”
She walked over and sat next to me as if we’d known each other since she was born. Obviously anyone who could tell that her dress was pretty was all right by her. She asked me if she could use my computer. Together we typed out our names on the keyboard, our ages, her mother’s name, my mom’s name with the random age assignment of 87. My mom watched us and laughed. She didn’t see the 19-year-old woman seated next to a little girl; she saw two very small, very alike little girls poking away at a computer. When Deanna found out that there was a camera on the computer it was all over. We started to take pictures making funny faces and laughing. Deanna’s mom had a hard time convincing both of us it was time for her to go.
When Deanna left I sat and stared at my computer. The computer was exactly the same as when Deanna had first seen it, wide-eyed and excited, but for me it had changed. It had become a magical thing; a place where flying arrows lead you where you want to go and with a single click you can reach out and touch the world. Deanna may have learned to spell such important words as ‘Mom’ and ‘Decorate’ but I had been given a gift even more precious. Deanna gave me the opportunity, just for a moment, to really see the world with new eyes, to look at an everyday tool as an exciting opportunity, an out of this world adventure.
Some people believe that it’s the little things in life that bring you joy and they may be right, but Deanna has convinced me that it’s the little people.
Posts
