Extra twist and the bottle top

Luky;
When my second daughter went to the first grade in school, she looked like a convent mascot. Inside her classrom there were thirty other little girls, looking just as tiny and heartrendingly cute to their own mothers as she did to me. Have you ever noticed how, when your child or grandchild brings home a class photo, somehow your eye immediately focuses on your own offspring?

Other problems
I went home, wondering how my daughter would like school. She is so different from her brothers and sisters. When she was small I had a lot on my mind, because her father became sick before she was a year old, and was bedridden for the next six months. There were other problems too, and because of them I found myself more a spectator than an active participant in her development.

One afternoon I was late fetching her, having forgotten that their class came out early for the first week or two. Approaching the playground, I heard her chatting before I could even see her. There she was, on a swing, talking away to the little schoolboy, who was pushing her forward. He, too, spoke nineteen to the dozen, so it took a while before they spotted me.

They all look the same
"Oh, there's my mom. I've got to go. Can you stop the swing for me?" The boy complied, smiling shyly into my direction. After she had thanked him and he had gone off to wait for his mother, I asked who he was.
"I don't know," my daughter replied, "I wish I did. He's very nice, but I know I won't be able to find him tomorrow. You see, there are so many of them, and they all look exactly the same."

I kept a straight face until I told my husband about this while we were preparing the school lunches.
"Yes," he said, "I knew she had found some male admirers. Remember the first time she told me not to put the top so tight on her cooldrink bottle, because she couldn't twist it off during break?"
I nodded.

Strong boys
 "Well, last week she came and said: 'Please Dad, put it on tight! The boys in my school are very strong, and they love to open my bottle for me. When you put it on tightly, they can show the other boys how strong their muscles are.'"
We laughed, and then my husband said: "Not even six years old, and she's discovered every man's Achilles heel." And he gave my daughter's bottle top an extra twist before putting it into the fridge.

*Photograph taken in beautiful Cape Town by Catherine Nicolette - a rainy day