Kayleigh
Before we get into this story I would like to explain to all my readers who the main characters are. First Granny Sandy, she is my oldest sister. Then Grandma Cindy, she is Kayleigh's grandmother and Jaymi's mother. Jaymi, she is Kayleigh's mother and she is also my God daughter, because of that I get to call Kayleigh my granddaughter.
One day Granny Sandy was visiting with Jaymi and Kayleigh. Jaymi left the room for a few minutes. When she did Kayleigh went running up to Granny Sandy. She said “Do me a favor Granny Sandy.”
Granny Sandy said “What?”
Kayleigh said “Would you please write a letter to Grandpa Arnold and ask him to come visit me.”
Granny Sandy said “Why don't you ask your mommy to do it, she could do a better job than I could.”
Kayleigh said “I want it to be a surprise for mommy.”
Granny Sandy agreed and when Granny Sandy got home that night she e-mailed me and told me what happened. Now I knew I was going to get a magic carpet on the weekend, and I really wanted to try it out, so I told Sandy I would be there next week. Well the magic carpet came and it was beautiful I couldn't wait to try it out. On Monday morning I sat down on the carpet and said “Take me to Jaymi's house.” even though it was clear across the country. I was landing in her backyard about three hours after I left my house. Kayleigh was outside playing when I landed. She was staring at me with her mouth wide open. As soon as she saw it was me. She came running up and jumped in my arms and gave me a big hug. She said “Thank you for coming Grandpa Arnold. I knew you would be here. Can I have a ride on your magic carpet?
I said “Sure, but first we have to go in so I can say hi to your mommy. I have to tell her I'm going to kidnap you for couple hours. It is only fair.”
Kayleigh said “Kidnap? that's a funny word, why did you say that?”
Years ago, when your mommy and uncle TJ were little I used to come visit them and Grandma Cindy. When I could I would take your mommy out for the day. We would have lots of fun. I would tell Grandma Cindy that I was kidnapping your mommy. Grandma Cindy always knew that if your mommy with with me she was fine, so Grandma Cindy never worried.
Where did you take mommy?
I remember once, I came a day or two before Christmas and I told your mommy we were going to do things different this year. I was going to take her out and she could pick out her own Christmas gift. She loved the idea. She knew what she wanted even before we got to the toy store.
What?
Well, she picked up this castle and when she took it apart it became a tea set. She loved it. Another time I took her miniature golfing. It was a little bit too hot but we had a great time anyway. Your mommy and I always had a great time together. One other time I took her to the top of a mountain. It was called the Palm Springs Tramway. It was cold on top and there was a lot of snow on the ground. We walked around a little bit then went in the restaurant and had hot chocolate. It sure tasted good. Then we came down, I took her to lunch. The restaurant we stopped at had a dinosaur in the parking lot.
Was it a real dinosaur Grandpa Arnold?
I said no, the man who owned the restaurant made it out of the scraps of lumber and metal and stuff he found along the roadways. Your mommy loved it. On the way out of the restaurant she wanted to know if she could get closer to it. So we got in my car and I slowly drove it around the dinosaur so she could see it all. Then we went home. Now there are two dinosaurs there. The first one is a gift shop.
Then we walked in the house to talk to Jaymi. When Jamie saw me she gave me a big hug. She said “What are you doing here?”
I said Kayleigh asked me to come, she wanted some help.
With what? Jaymi said.
I said “I don't know, that's why I am going to kidnap Kayleigh for a couple hours and find out what's going on.
Jamie laughed “Okay” Jaymi said “I remember all the fun we used to have when you used to kidnap me.”
So Kayleigh and I went out the back door and sat on the magic carpet. The magic carpet rose up about 20 feet. I said “Okay, Kayleigh now tell me what's going on.”
Kayleigh was amazed as she was looking around. She said “Grandpa, I need your help. It is almost mommy's birthday and I want to buy her a gift but I don't know what to buy her. Since you are her godfather I figured you would know better than anybody what she would like.
How much money do you have Kayleigh?
She smiled and said “Two quarters.”
I laughed “That's not going to buy much of a present, honey.”
“I know I've been trying to save my money, but I don't get very much.”
“I have an idea, why don't I buy the present for your mom and you can pay me back whenever you get the money and then you can give her the present.”
Kayleigh liked that idea.
I said “Let's go to the Disneyland store first, your mommy loves Disney.”
“Okay” Kayleigh said.
“The Disneyland store, magic carpet.” I said. And within a few minutes we were landing in front of the mall where the Disney store was. We went in and Kayleigh started walking around looking at everything. She stopped and played with a few things. After about 30 min. Kayleigh said “I don't see anything here I want to get mommy. Do you have any other ideas?
I said “I'm hungry, let's get something to eat, we can talk while we eat.”
So we went over to the food court. I said “Kayleigh I don't know what you like so I am going to order the way my dad used to order and if you don't like it you don't have to eat it. When I was little I used to work with my dad and once in a while we would go out for lunch. He would always order the same thing. Hamburger and chocolate shake. For years I didn't know there's anything else. Finally I learned there were other things you could order. I decided I would rather have cheese on my hamburger. So I'm going to order two cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes.” So that's what I did. We got our food, found a table and sat down to eat.
Kayleiegh said “I have had hamburgers before, I like them. This is my first chocolate shake and it is good to.”
I said these are my thoughts “Your mommy likes archaeology, and she loves Dr. Who, and she loves Disney. She also loves to read. So we could go over to the bookstore and see if we could find some books she'd like.”
Kayleigh said “Sounds good to me. What is archaeology?”
“That is digging in the ground to find out about people that lived a long time ago.”
Kayleigh said “All right, but there is one problem. I'm only four years old, I don't know how to read. You are going to have to pick out the books for mommy.”
I laughed and said “I forgot you're just like your mother was, 4 going on 20.”
“I'm not 20!, I'm 4.”
I know honey. It just means you act a lot older than you are, just like your mommy did. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact it is a good thing.
So we went to the bookstore and looked around. I picked out 4 books I thought Jamie would like. Then we left. I said “Kayleigh, do you want to have a little fun before we leave.”
“Doing What?”
I said “We still have some time, if you want we can go to the toy store and you can play with the toys for a little while.”
Kaykeigh said “Sure.”
So we went to the toy store. After about 30 min. I went over and picked Kayleigh up. I carried her outside of the store and set her down.
She said “Why did you do that?”
I said “I was remembering again when your mommy and uncle TJ were little. Grandma Cindy and I used to take them to a mall in the town where they live. First we would eat lunch at the buffet.”
“What's a buffet?”
I said “That is a restaurant where you pay one price and eat all you want. They have tables and tables of food in a buffet. The only thing is you are not allowed to take food out of the buffet. What you take you're supposed to eat there and not waste it. Then we gave your mommy and TJ some time to play in the toy store, they always like that. When it was time to go, Grandma Cindy always said that one's yours, pointing to your mommy. This one's mine. I would pick your mommy up like I picked you up and Grandma Cindy would pick TJ up and we would carry them out of the store. When TJ started getting too big grandma Cindy would just drag him out. That mall was called the Carousel Mall because it had a big carousel in it. Your mommy loves carousels we always had to give her time to ride the carousel before we left the mall.” I said “I think it's time we head back home.”
So we left the mall, got the magic carpet from its hiding place and went back to Kayleigh's house. When we got back I kept Jaymi busy for a few minutes so Kayleigh could take the books to her bedroom and hide them.
A couple of weeks later I was there for Jaymi's birthday. She opened all her presents. All of a sudden Kayleigh disappears. She comes back in holding the books all covered with toilet paper.
“This is for you mommy.” Kayleigh said
Jamie said “Why is it all covered in toilet paper?”
“It is the only paper I could find, and you know if you get it wet you don't even need tape to make it stick.”
We all laughed.
Jamie took the toilet paper off and looked at the books and said “Thank you honey, I will really enjoy them. How did you pick them out?”
“Grandpa Arnold helped me”
Jamie said “That's what you were doing the day you kidnapped Kayleigh, thank you for helping her. “
“I enjoyed it.” I said
I was there a week later for Kayleigh's birthday. After she open all their other presence I gave her a box. She opened it up and inside were some books for her. She pulled them out and a note fell out . She picked up the note and gave it to her mommy and said “What does it say mommy?”
Jamie read the note to Kayleigh “Paid in full”
“What does that mean mommy” Kayleigh asked
“You must owed Grandpa Arnold some money, like for my birthday present. Now he's saying you don't have to pay it back.”
Kayleigh ran over to me. Gave me a big hug and whispered in my ear. “I don't accept that Grandpa, I'm still going to pay you, I just don't know when.
Comments