Rules for the neighborhood kids

I have always been friendly with the kids in my neighborhood, but ever since I got the kitten, Indigo, I am super popular.
I was home early one evening last week, lying in bed reading. There was a knock at the door; I answered and looked out at my own height. Not seeing anyone then I looked down. Niambh was standing there. "Do you have a kitten?" she asked.
"Yes, I have had her for two weeks."
"I thought so. I saw her yesterday sitting in the window. I called over last night but you weren't home, " she said looking at me accusingly.
"Yeah, I was out last night."
"Can I come in and see her?" Niambh asked.
"You can but she is hiding. She gets scared pretty easily and isn't used to people."
Niambh entered the front room and started looking around. "Where is she?"
"Dunno. Try looking behind the sofa or in the kitchen." Niambh started exploring and I went to sit in the open doorway with my cigs and water.
I can't find her," she said coming back out to me.
"Well, give it time. Once she gets used to you, she might come out. She gets livelier in later in the evenings."
"Can we do art?" Niambh asked.
"Sure, let me get the stuff." I pulled out paper for her and went into the spare room to collect the art supplies. "Are you going to make pictures for the street party?" I asked.
Niambh nodded. She set herself up at the table in the front room. "Do you not have any paints?" she asked after searching the plastic bag of supplies.
"Look again, I thought I had paints in that bag."
"I can't find any."
"Hmm, I don't know where they are then." She settled for the pastel crayons.
It was a warm evening so I sat in the doorway and watched the neighborhood. After a while, Niambh brought her artwork and supplies over. I decided to do a drawing, too. We both were drawing kittens. I used the museum garden where I found Indigo as the scene. Niambh and I compared our work periodically. "At least yours looks like a cat," I said to her at one point. "Mine looks more like a fox." She giggled and nodded.
More neighborhood kids arrived. It was Sean, Niambh's brother, Carlos, and Mick. "I came to see the kitten," said Niambh to them.
"Can we go see the kitten too?" they all chorused. "Please, please, please."
"Alright but don't make too much noise, you'll scare her." I shook my head; three boys between the ages of 6 and 10. Quiet was not really an option.
"OK," said Sean. "Yeah!" said Carlos and Mick as they climbed over Niambh and her painting. The three boys charged around my little house. They moved all the things that Indigo could be hiding under.
"I saw her!" yelled Mick. The other two boys pushed him out of the way to get their turn.
After a bit, the boys got bored and started roughhousing in the front room. Niambh looked over at them. "Boys are a lot of trouble," she said. I agreed, thinking that most don't get any better when they are older either.
Eventually the noise the boys were making reached a level I could not stand. "Enough!" I roared, surprising myself at how loud I could yell (not to mention surprising them). They looked at me in shock but then started to wrestle again. "You're barred. Out!" Again, hesitation. "Now!" They hustled out.
"How long are we barred for?" asked Sean as he left. "How come she gets to stay?" asked Carlos.
I sighed. "Oh, you can visit another night later in the week." Then to Carlos, "she wasn't annoying me."
I decided to make up rules for the boys' next visit. The overlying guideline was that they were to behave or I wouldn't let them in. As that was too general, the explicit rules were #1, no burping; #2, no farting (the contests for #1 and #2 were unbearable); #3, roughhousing is okay, but no wrecking the joint; and finally #4, listen to me, and if I say stop or no, do what I say.
The rules were semi-successful on their next visit. They stayed longer and mostly behaved. On their third visit, they tested the rules and got barred again. It ended in tears.
Editor's note: Indigo turned out to be male.  I hadn't checked.

Wonder kids

Six-year old Fintan rang my doorbell the other evening to ask if he could play on my friend's abandoned car, which has been in front of my house for a couple of years. The kids in the neighborhood know that this car is the only one they are allowed to play on, and Fintan's mum wants him to ask my permission each time.
So I answered the door and Fintan took one look at me and said "why is your hair red?" (It isn't.) I replied that I had got my hair cut that day. "Oh... it looks almost like mine" (it doesn't). I smiled and said "almost, we could be twins." A smile of wonder spread across his face. "Almost" he said and climbed up on the car.
****
Shopping at the outdoor market in Temple Bar yesterday, I went over to a cheese stall. I was looking at the cheeses when a little voice piped up "would you like to try this goat cheese? It is very good." I looked up. A cute little Chinese girl was standing on a crate behind the cheeses, helping her dad on the stall.
The cheese was good. It started to rain again. "Oh no," she said. I got soaked a while ago." Big smiles. "Me too." I decided on another cheese, pointing to it. "You can buy it in one of those (prepared wrapped wedges), but the other is fresher.
"Those are too small. I think I'll get that big wedge there."
She wrapped it up carefully and said "I can give it to you for 4.50." "Great" I said. I handed her the coins and she carefully counted them. Twice.
Her excitement at working the stall and efforts to say all the right things won me over. A dote.