Wow. Scotty must really be into Spiderman.
“Spiderman must be your favorite,” she said.
“He’s awesome! He can jump!” Scotty jumped over a pair of tennis shoes on the floor, landing on the other side. “And he can climb! Plus, he gots cool web hands!” He hopped over onto his bed and picked up a Spiderman comic book on the bedside table. Then he held it up to her. “I’m reading this one.”
She knew he couldn’t read yet but played along. “That’s good, Scotty,” she said. “I read a book every night before I go to sleep.”
“My dad reads to me before bed too,” he said, nodding.
“That’s wonderful,” Ellen said. It was so important for children to be read to. “Your room looks great.”
The room was perfect for a five-year-old boy who loved Spiderman.
Travis seems like such a good dad. A good man.
“Let’s go out and see if your dad needs any help,” she said.
Okay,” Scotty said. “I help him a lot.”
“That’s good,” she said.
They went back outside, and Ellen said, “Do you need any help?”
“Nope,” Travis said. “Food will be ready any minute. Get your plates ready.”
Scotty climbed onto the picnic table seat and grabbed a paper plate, waving it in the air. “I’m ready!”
Ellen and Travis both laughed.
Travis brought the veggies over to the table and set them down, then he opened the foil and steam rose. He gave each of them a burger, on top of their buns, before putting one on his own bun. He picked up the pickle jar and opened it. “How many pickles tonight, little man?” he asked Scotty.
“No pickles!” Scotty shouted. “I hate pickles!”
Surprised, Travis sat down shaking his head. “Last week you wanted three pickles on your burger.”
“Pickles are gross,” Scotty said.
“Okay, no pickles,” Travis said. “Just say no thank you.”
“No thank you,” Scotty said.
“Did something happen to make you stop liking pickles?” Ellen asked.
Scotty just shrugged. He was busy putting ketchup on his burger.
Watching him, she wondered if he was acting up because she was there.
“He changes his likes and dislikes about every other week,” Travis said. “I don’t know why.”
“Maybe,” Ellen was cautious with how she said this, “He just isn’t hungry for that today. And that’s okay.” She turned to Scotty. “Scotty, do you know the difference between not liking something and not being hungry for it today?”
Scotty shrugged again.
For being so excited to have Ellen over for dinner with them, his mood seemed to have changed around the food being served. She wondered what had made the change.
“If you don’t like a food, that means you never want to eat it. You can like a food and not want it all the time, only sometimes. Or maybe you’ve had so much of it, you just don’t want it again for a while. Saying no thank you to a food is enough. You don’t have to explain why to everyone.”
Suddenly aware that she’d gone into teacher mode a bit too much, and might be sounding preachy, she stopped, turned to Travis, and said, “Sorry.”
