Laughter filled the hallway. Of the sounds on earth, a child’s laughter is perhaps the closest to that of heaven, thought George. He looked at Dennis from afar with fatherly affection and said a quiet prayer for Dennis. It was one of those days, where he felt exceedingly blessed to have Dennis- his treasure, his heritage. Indeed, blessed is the man whose quiver is filled with them!
Of course, the highs are never without the lows and there are just as many tough days as there are good ones. Could so much devastation and delight co-exist in the gift of a child? It could. But Wilson also knew that sometimes blessings come through raindrops and to George, Dennis was mainly blessing than raindrop.
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Dennis had just learned to read and he found books immensely interesting. He’d take books, papers, anything with words on them and traced his fingers across the alphabets.
“K-I-N-D-N-E-S-S. What does that mean Pa?”
“That is when you do something nice for someone. Like when Ma gives me a neck massage- that is an act of kindness”
“Oh”
Most of it didn’t make sense to him but that didn’t stop him from asking. Words were exciting and he found it peculiar that almost everything he could see or feel or touch could be described in words- of course, most of the time he didn’t know what the word was. He was eager to make new discoveries and spent significant amount of time with books, especially books with colourful pictures.
His favourite was a picture dictionary that depicted the different things and people one might find in different places. He especially loved the section in a carpenter’s shed and would look through the list of tools one would have if he were a carpenter.
“H-A-M-M-E-R. Hammer!”
Martha smiled at Dennis.
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Martha, George and Dennis made up the Wilsons. Martha and George met in school but it didn’t occur to her that one day she’d be a Wilson. Mostly showy and borderline obnoxious, George wasn’t her type. He’s mellowed down significantly since then, it may be that men mature at a later age when compared to women. Martha wasn’t his type either- Martha was as modest in her looks as in her ways but George had a penchant for the popular. Either way- they made it.
And now. Now, there was Dennis.
-
Martha sat beside Dennis as he read his picture dictionary.
“Mom, I want to be a carpenter, fireman, astronaut, policeman and doctor when I grow up!”
“That’s lovely sweetie, which is your favourite?” she asked gently.
“They are all my favourite”
“Well, you can be anything you want to be, sweetie.”
She smiled again at Dennis, but found herself continuing in her head “.., but you can’t be everything you want to be”.
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