The Bookie Borist

Maggie, soccer season two years ago.

Today. Was. The Start. Of. Soccer Season.

Well, it’s actually been soccer season for awhile, but today was the first official game for the team. And, well... The final score was not so good. However, as Zig Ziglar says, “Let failure be your teacher, not your undertaker,” and those women were playing soccer at a much more competitive level than I’ve seen in the past three seasons! Hurray!

Mia and Maggie were not playing soccer. They were playing pretend with their new eight-year-old friend, Alyssa. Alyssa is the little sister of one of the gals on the team and the three of them have been having a ball (hee, hee, I’m so punny) dominating the soccer field sidelines together.

Today, since the temperatures soared once again toward a hot day in Hades and Mikayla was asleep in the car seat, I parked the Suburban and sat in the air conditioning to watch the game. Mia and Maggie headed out and scampered around the practice field with Alyssa. Their body language was generally perky and it appeared they were in high spirits as they tempted heat stroke.

After Mikayla woke up I gathered my courage and HUGE CHERRY LIMEADE with LOTS OF ICE and headed out into the humid atmosphere to melt in the stands.

Maggie bolted up to me and demanded that I give Mikayla to Isaiah so that I could hold her. I obliged and then snuggled her close and asked her what she had been doing.

“I been in the bookie borist,” she reported happily. This did not make sense. I asked her to repeat herself.

She waved her hand toward the far side of the practice field where the grass slides into a thicket of green growing things that would definitely not survive in Arizona.

“The bookie borist!” she repeated. “Dere’s bats in dere!”

My brain raced to try to figure out what in the world she was talking about. Then Mia, my charming little know-it-all, piped up.

“The Spooky Forest!” she translated.

“Yes,” Maggie agreed quickly. “The Pooky Foress.” Pause. Then she reared back in my arms to put as much distance between our faces as possible. “An’ dere’s alligators in dere, too!”

I was suitably impressed.

“Bats! An’ alligators!” she saw our friend Adam standing by Isaiah, thought for another second, and then got a mischievous gleam in her eye. “And Adams!”

And so begins a season of soccer games played beside the Bookie Borist. I can’t wait!

JJ