lesson 5: your boots will melt out in the spring

"When I got too loud in the house, my mom would send me outside."

"Probably a good idea."

She sticks out her tongue. "Anyways, this one winter, when the snow was almost up to my armpits, I ventured into the backyard."

"How old were you, five? The snow up to armpits thing sounds impressive, but you were probably really short."

"You're missing the point, you know that," she chastises. "It was pretty cold and I was just tromping around the yard, kind of swim-walking through the snow making a maze of paths through the backyard. By the time I got back to the house, I realized I'd lost my boots somewhere."

"You lost your boots. Didn't you feel it? What, were you in bare feet?"

"Nooo," she sighs at me incredulously. "My feet were cold. I couldn't feel anything til I got to the back steps. My mom was pretty mad. But she knew we'd never find them."

"And?"

"And they melted out in the spring."

"Lesson? Come on, you've got to beat the balloon popping lesson."

"Oh, ok. . . Um."

"You aren't very good at this."

"I'd tell you to shut up but that would be rude."

"Well you a..."

She cuts me off, and puts a hand on my arm, "If you love something, set it free... yada yada... Come back to you."

"You loved your boots?"

"Don't press me to be profound. You won't get any results that way."

"You give up to easily... and I don't really expect you to be profound. By the way, the snow isn't very deep in the picture you posted. Is that what you Canadians call deep snow?"

She sighs and gets up saying, "I have *real* things to do."