Taylor in Wonderland

"Look Taylor! Do you see that rabbit up there? It's right there, in the garden."

"Oh, ok. See the bunny. I see him jump."

"But do you see it?" she asks, noting that he's not looking in the right direction.

"Umm . . . no." Jessica sets the three year old down at the crest of the hill and points to the rabbit. "Oh," the child exclaims, "I found him."

"Go get him!"

Once free of his aunt, the red-haired ragamuffin hurries over a mostly barren, uneven ground dotted with patches of tall, hardy weeds. The rabbit easily eludes him, hopping away and through a hole in the fence before the child takes a dozen steps. Looking up at his aunt with big eyes and raising his arms to be carried again, he pleads, "Jessica, I want to see another bunny!"

Swinging Taylor easily up onto her hip, Jessica suggests that they go to the end of the small field to check behind grandpa's special tree. Why it is special she no longer remembers, and her grandfather cannot remind her, but there was surely something wonderful about that tree. At any rate, there were no rabbits to be found. Instead, they found something equally exciting to a little boy.

"Jessica, look! It's a calpillar!"

"Would you like me to put you down so you can see it better?"

"Yes!" Squatting above the insect and leaning forward with his hands clasped behind his back, Taylor asks in all seriousness, "Where are you going cowpillar?"

Curious to see how the boy will react, his aunt answers from behind him in falsetto, "I'm going to watch the big trucks on the highway!"

"Oh," he responds, "I like trucks." Taylor watches the caterpillar for a few minutes longer before again asking, "Where are you going calpillar?"

"I'm going to watch the big trucks on the highway!"

"Nooo," he says with mild disbelief. "Where are you going cowpillar?"

"Well I'm really hungry, so I'm looking for some good leaves to eat. Then I'm going to go build a cocoon and go to sleep for a few weeks." Switching to her natural voice, Jessica feigns excitement, "Wow Taylor! Did you hear that? He's going to go build a cocoon! A cocoon is like a little house where the caterpillar will sleep for a few weeks. Then he'll come out as a beautiful butterfly."

"Him's building a cocoon house?"

"Yes, he's building a cocoon!"

"Wow. I want to see another bunny." She lifts the small boy and carries him back over the uneven terrain to his great-grandmother's somewhat ramshackle house.

"I don't see any more rabbits, Taylor, but I think it's time to go home now."

"Ok. Take a calpillar home?"

"Hmmm. I don't think your mommy would like that very much," she says with a smile.

Stooping down to the bottom of the fence where another caterpillar busies himself, Taylor lets out a small sigh and looks sadly at his new friend. "Goodbye, cowpillar."