A Case of Magics

B: Say “knock, knock”

S: Knock, knock

B: Who’s there?

S: Seamus.

B: Seamus Who?

S: Seamus!

B: No, it can’t be just Seamus. Say “Knock, knock.”

S: Knock, Knock.

B: Who’s there?

S: Seamus.

B: Seamus Who?

S: Seamus, A boy!

B: Noooo! Something funny!

B: Ok, say “knock, knock.”

S: Knock, knock.

B: Who’s there?

S: A boy.

B: A boy who?

S: A boy Seamus!

Booker might be more effective at teaching the concept of knock, knock jokes if he fully mastered it himself. The best he has been able to come up with so far is something on the order of, who’s there, when, when who, when are you going to give me a cookie? He has not completely grasped that the who has to mean something different the second time around. But he is intrigued by the idea of a pun, whereas Seamus remains pure slapstick.

The photos show Booker earning M ’n’ Ms by practicing violin, and Seamus failing to earn M ’n’ Ms by not being able to sit down for three minutes while Booker practices violin. He starts planted in the chair, is on his feet by bar four of “Lightly Row,” and crawling into the violin case by bar six. Then again, one can’t fault the boy, by bar six many members of the audience might be looking for someplace small and cozy to hide.

The last photo is more like it: Booker and Seamus play capoeira. Booker is doing a passable version of meia-lua de frente (although he really should have that left heel planted), and Seamus is in a surprisingly close approximation of cocorinha--surprising because his understanding of capoeira is mostly limited to flopping onto his hands and mule-kicking backwards, and does not exclude moves such as the face-slap and the hair-pull, considered unorthodox in most versions of the jogo bonito. But he loves his “capoeira pants,” a pair of satin pajamas, now split neatly up the backside after too many mule-kicks, but no less adored.

Perhaps it is not surprising that Booker has begun to fantasize about being magically transported to another realm. In a tone of hope fighting against doubt, he states that the next time he loses a tooth, the tooth fairy is going to give him magic. Lying in bed last night, just before sleep, he got more specific: the tooth fairy will deliver a case of magics to him, and he will use one to go into the tv, and travel to all the places inside the tv, starting with Dora the Explorer’s island. We asked how the tooth fairy would keep all the magics from running together, and he replied that she would put them in different slots, of course. But then he worried: when I open the case, will all the magics fall out?

I wish I could say no. Maybe we’ll stick with the quarter under the pillow.