tailgate

Once when Daniel was a little fella' we were driving up the lane toward the highway from the Big House. There was a box turtle on the road and of course we stopped to pick him up. I sent Daniel out to grab him. That was no problem for Daniel, he had experience with turtles and all kinds of animals. He picked up the turtle and came to the truck door and would have gotten in the truck holding the turtle except that I said, "Put him in the back of the truck and shut the tailgate". My experience had taught me that when you pick up a turtle it is best not to have him in the floor of the vehicle crawling around. If he gets under the accelerator it's hard to go and if he gets under the brake it's hard to stop and if he gets under the seat he's hard to retrieve.

"Put him in the back and shut the tailgate". Daniel just stood there holding the turtle. Daniel even at 4 was a man of action. For him to just stand there with a blank look on his face, that was perplexing to me. He was always good at following directions especially if he heard them twice.

"Daniel! Put the turtle in the back of the truck and close the tailgate so he won't get out!" Daniel looked at me, then at the turtle. He turned the turtle over. Have you ever played with a box turtle? If you have you know that they have a hinged shell that allows them to shut themselves up completely so that no flesh is exposed.

Daniel turned the turtle over and with his finger he punched the flesh beside the turtles tail causing him to pull himself in and shut the rear part of his shell for protection. Another little punch with Daniel's finger and the "tailgate" was closed. He put the turtle into the bed of the truck and started to get back in the truck.

Stella, you were there. You are my witness. Am I telling it right?

I nearly cried, it was so funny. I didn't want to offend Daniel, so I restrained myself, only smiling with tears in my eyes. I love him so much. He is so perfect. He is strong willed and active, but still sensitive. He likes to be right. I have to be careful not to embarrass him. I hold back with all my might. "Daniel, the door on the back of the truck, the gate-thing that we close back there to keep things from rolling out, we call that the tailgate. Go back around to the back of the truck and shut it for Daddy. That'll keep the turtle from getting out if he decides to start walking around back there."

Later that day I told the story and laughed and I told it in Daniel's presence. I wanted him to see the funniness in the misunderstanding. I wanted him to laugh with us. He did NOT think it was funny. Over the years I told of the incident occasionally and often Daniel was there to hear it. Each time he heard the story he always found it to be very NOT funny. "Oh no, not that, not again".

One day, many years later when Daniel was nearly a teenager, I found myself needing to tell it just one more time. (Every time I tell it, my heart is so full it could almost burst with my love and admiration for my son, Daniel. I almost choke when I tell it. My heart feels like it will burst. It was just one of those things that happens in a family, one of those things that'll never go away. It is a moment frozen in time and it will last forever. It has to be told. Daniel was so smart and he understood everything that he should at his age and so much more. His granddaddy had said when Daniel was two years old, "I don't know what I'm going to do, I've taught him almost everything I know!" Well almost everything.... Granddaddy rarely had a tailgate on HIS truck and THAT was one detail he had not had the opportunity or need to explain for Daniel. )

In that moment with the turtle in hand, it was so important to Daniel that he should understand his dad's request. He had heard it, he had pondered it, he had decoded it and he had taken the appropriate action.

Perfect. A perfect moment. The whole world pivoted on that one little poke of a turtle's tender flesh.

Daniel laughed.