I was sitting on my back porch trying to articulate my thoughts when Bella sat down next to me at the table. She had her IPad and asked me if I would let her use my keyboard. I explained that she couldn’t use it because I was using it. But I have a spare so I let her use it. As we were both going about the business of writing down our thoughts we paused when we were distracted by the neighbors.

My neighbor had a lot of building supplies delivered last week because he is having his backyard deck replaced. My neighbor and his son were outside standing on the old deck having a conversation. At a glance I assumed the dad was telling his son about his soon to be improved/replaced deck.

I asked Bella, “Do you know who those two men are?” Bella knew the dad, Mr. David but she didn’t know the other man by name but she said she’d seen him before. I told Bella that the other man was Mr. Ethan and he was Mr. David’s son. I went on to say that I didn’t like Mr. Ethan.

At this time Bella became fully engaged with our discussion. She asked why I didn’t like Mr. Ethan. I told her that when her Uncle Nick was about her size he came in the house very upset because Ethan threw a rock at him and hit him in the head. When I heard that I immediately went outside to address the issue. Ethan was playing basketball on his driveway with his cousins and he told me that no one threw any rocks. Since Nick had a good inflamed bump on his head, I knew Ethan was lying.

I asked Bella if I should still be mad about that. She said she didn’t know. I told her that I probably should let that go because I was sure Mr. Ethan had forgotten all about it. Bella assured me that if Mr. Ethan was ever over there with his kids then she would stay away. I told her that wasn’t necessary because it happened when Mr. Ethan was a little kid and that I was sure he was a good person now. She became thoughtful for a minute. She then told me that the next she was over there when he was there she would remind Mr. Ethan of what he did to her Uncle Nick. Perfect…can’t wait for the follow-up conversation with Bella.