My little friend stands about 2 feet tall. We spend a lot of time together these days, he and I… Sometimes we go shopping together. He’s especially partial to zucchini. When we see the zucchini display he points and says “Ehh”; sometimes he’ll stretch out of his seat in the supermarket to reach a sweet potato, pointing and calling it by name: “Ehh.” Come to think of it, he names most of the things he sees by pointing to them and calling them “Ehh.” The other day though I asked him if he wanted a cookie. I think he said “cookie “in response though it could’ve been “ookie.” But, I know for sure that it wasn’t “Ehh.” I was so excited that I called his mother to tell her.
On the way back to the car we saw a bunch of pigeons sitting on a roof. I said “Those are pigeons on that roof.” He said “roof”… well it could’ve been “oof.” Then, looking at the car he said “ar.” “Ar” is close enough to “car” for me, but I didn’t call his mother though because by now this was becoming old stuff.
Later that day in another shopping cart in another grocery store my little friend saw a pumpkin faced helium balloon. “Ehh! Ehh! Ehh!” he proclaimed emphatically, pointing up to the balloon. If he calls anything by name three times that means he really wants it. Anything named “Ehh, Ehh, Ehh” is not to be denied nor disregarded so I undid the “Ehh, Ehh, Ehh” from the other mylar balloons with strings and attached it to the handle of our shopping cart. With the “Ehh, Ehh, Ehh” trailing behind us we cruised the aisles looking for chocolate fudge bars. My little friend wasn’t much interested when eventually we did find them. But, he really did enjoy reeling in the “Ehh, Ehh, Ehh” by its ribbon so he could bounce it off the brim of my baseball cap, marveling with laughter over his accomplishment.
Well… it was a long day that passed too quickly and when I dutifully finished recounting the events of the day to his mother my little friend put the exclamation point on it all… He said with great feeling: “Ehh!”
The zucchini was good that night and even if you went looking for them you probably wouldn’t be able to find the tiny teeth marks where my little friend had been gnawing on it.
Ehh!