Afternoon Light Was Turning

My younger one wanted me to walk with her to a friend’s home in the early evening.  They wanted to go to the Christmas party the compound was throwing.  The girls at the local market had warned me about this.  “You should come.  We are having a party tomorrow night.”  Oddly, there request, seemed genuine.  I held off saying what would have been an honest reply:  “I have no interest in that sort of thing . . . And you shouldn’t either!”

 The older one had basketball tournament and the Mrs. was working all day so the younger one and I worked on some of her homework and did our own thing and then decided on project that appealed to her.  My inclination is always, drearily, to read or discuss books.  I had a grim reflection of Tolstoy’s eccentric father Prince Nikolai Andreyevich who is forever quizzing his monastic daughter.  Think of something that would be fun, you oaf.  OK, well then, in as much as you are asking for a physical camera for Christmas my love, this in spite of the fact that you have a perfectly good camera on your la-dee-dah iPhone, let’s go out and take some pictures.  I desperately need some new snaps for my blog, as I’ve mentioned recently. Cool.  This struck her as fun.  “Just let me finish something”.  A ten minute push back.  Then another fifteen.  The crisp afternoon light, was turning to dusk.  “Let’s go!”

I tell her of the story of my sister who received a digital camera when they were first introduced.  She was told by my father that a message would appear when there was a “photo opportunity.”  She imagined the absurdity of this and agreed it was pretty funny.  “Are you seeing any “Photo opps?”I asked?  And certainly, despite my complaining the other day, there are always things to photograph.  A funny car, bare branches cutting out the sky, dusty dead leaves forming a design fit for a Persian rug there on the ground.

Later it was time to rendez vous with her friend for the party at the clubhouse. It was dark and thought she might have gone over by herself, I thought it best to go over with her.  She is the younger one mind you. She and her friend wanted to visit the afore mentioned Christmas party.  It was clear she was keen to have me peel off so they could continue by themselves.  I applied the same logic about the dark and decided to continue along with them the extra hundred yards to the compound.  Arriving, it was quite a scene.  Anyone who lived her could enter, it seemed.  I was in a throw over sweater and my hair was flopping all about.  I wasn’t in any proper form to enter the community party in.  And besides this was my daughter’s idea.  “Thanks dad, I’ll take it from here.  No really, you can go now.”  I left going against the traffic of people heading in and wondered why I wasn’t attending and why I had ever invested much in this virtual community that I lived in, for now.