A new toy

The toy shop near me is closing, unable to keep up with high rent and competition from a certain billionaire online purveyor of everything. The store has been a feature of my life with the Grands since they were little tykes. There’s a going-out-of-business sale on now, 50% off everything, so I scooped up a few playful gifts for Margie. I’m saving most of them for times when we can’t go out because of the heat, but I brought one today, just for fun.

It’s similar to an Etch-a-Sketch: you draw on it with a stylus or a fingernail, then press the dog’s nose and Boom! the picture disappears.

Margie can’t remember to push the dog’s nose, but she had great fun drawing pictures with her fingernails. Each time I pressed the dog’s nose, she laughed. At one point she said, “I wish you could do that in real life.”

I asked what she would erase, if it worked in real life. She looked into her past, thinking about the question, and forgot what the question was. Again she drew, again I pressed the dog’s nose, and that time she said, “I would erase Bernie’s death.” 

We sat quietly with her sorrow till she came back to the present, and then we addressed ourselves to our coffee. Later she returned to the toy and asked me how it worked. I showed her, and she took fresh delight in it. 

It’s quite a warm day, so after walking the four blocks back to her apartment, Margie was exhausted but happy, trying to keep her eyes open but unable (Extra). I’m sure she won’t remember how the toy works, so I texted her daughter to explain it.