All Spice

I was walking back from the garden when a car pulled up alongside me. When the driver lowered the window to hail me, I saw it was a friend and former colleague. He was driving to dinner with his two young daughters in the backseat, and although the older was friendly when I said hello, the two-year-old turned her head purposefully away from me.

"Is it stranger danger?" I asked playfully, and when she turned back, I saw a little smirk on her face. 

"No!" she said and hid her face again.

"You should really talk to me," I told her. "I'm very funny and I love kids!"

"No!" she said again.

"I'll talk to you," her sister offered. 

Great!" I agreed. "Have you been having a fun summer?'

"Tell her about the beach," their dad suggested.

"We made mermaid tails and went to Funland," she told me. "But the Haunted House was closed," she sighed.

"What was the best thing at Funland?" I asked.

"The swings and the bumper cars," she answered, as her sister listened suspiciously.

"Did you crash a lot?" I laughed. "Because that's the only time you're allowed to crash in a car, y'know."

Her sister's eyes were on me. "My car was pink!" she said.

"Uh oh, you talked to me," I teased her.

"You didn't even have a car," her sister corrected her. "You're too little!"

"Not to be a mermaid," the younger girl scoffed.

"Did you know we're expecting another one in December?" their dad interjected. "She's got the middle child vibe on lock already, doesn't she?