Every Saturday morning, Abraham and I walk the boys to their Taekwondo practice. It’s a very slow walk, because, well, Abraham’s legs are short AND he loves to look at EVERYTHING on the way, so taking him with me rather that running the boys over, which would take ten minutes tops, means I commit to a one hour stroll. If you know me, you know I usually walk faster than most people do, and that I am not the strolling type. But; Abraham enjoys it so much, and he’s so cute engaging in everything, that I think of this hour as a treat for him.
Our walk starts out a little brisker, because we want to get the boys to their activities, but after we’ve waved good-bye to them, the adventures begin. There’s always something interesting to see. These past couple of weeks – springtime - there have always been at least one couple of campus cats along the road engaged in making new kittens. Very interesting. And totally OK, because since Abraham is so little, I don’t have to explain anything. “Yoook, Mama! Kitty payyying, mama!” "Yes, they’re playing, isn’t that cute?!" This morning we saw a cat with a bird in his mouth, parading in front of a group of hungry looking cats. I noticed the bird was still wiggling a bit. “Yoook, mama!! Kitty eat BIRDY, mama!!” Yup. That's it. "The kitty is hungry." Then Abraham picks up a deep humming sound, and points to the sky, “Where ayy-pane, mama?!” So we look for the airplane, which I’ve noticed is a Lufthansa flight coming in right after 10 am every Saturday morning. After that we smell the flowers, pick a handful of rosemary and pocket as many pine cones as we can. Always discussing everything in detail. Sometimes we enter the bookstore whose window Abraham will stare through forever, commenting on every single book he sees, and sometimes we stop for a treat at Dunkin Donuts. Always we run into students who want to take pictures with their phones of Abraham. (I wonder about this: Why would they want to carry around a picture of some strange child? But it’s so common and an almost instant reflex many students have when they see Abraham, “Ooohh, he’s SO CUTE!! Can I please take a picture?” Female and male students alike.) Some like to touch his hair, and at least one of the food stall men will hand some treat to him (Today he received a handful of doughnut holes). “What’s your name?” they ask, and Abraham replies, “Ay-mee-HAM!” They look at me and I clarify, “Abraham,” at which they always reply, “What a magnificent name!!” and add a reference to the Bible or the Qu’ran, depending on their religion. Then they take another picture. Sometimes when we near our home and only our Concierge is left to exchange greetings with, “Abraham, how are you today, cute boy?” I feel like we’ve just finished a parade. The display of Abraham, blond and cute, on his Saturday walk.
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