via natalie dee

Gather ’round, kiddies. It’s storytime!

Once upon a time, Miss Bex worked at a daycare in the preschool room. On this particular day, 4-year-old Polly* and her mother were hovering by the folders, the young girl distraught and crying.

You see, we used to have these hanging file folders by the door with each child’s name on them. The kids could put their artwork or writing attempts in them, the teachers put announcements in them, and parents could put birthday invitations in them on days like today.

Polly insisted that she had gotten an invitation. Her mother had gone through each and every file, looking for a little envelope with Polly’s name on it to no avail. Mom was beginning to think that Polly was mistaken and that she didn’t get an invitation at all.

I, meanwhile, knew different. I knew that the invitations were from Adam, a shy sweet 3-year-old. Adam’s dad had asked me for a list of a few kids that were friends with Adam, and Polly was at the top of that list. The pair were inseparable. I knew Polly had an invitation.

I hunkered down in front of the files to help in the hunt. I assured the blubbering Polly that she had an invitation, and if we couldn’t find it we’d ask Adam’s dad for a new one. When I got to troublemaker Eddie’s folder, I stopped.

Eddie had an envelope in his file. There was a large black pencil scribble across the middle, then under the mark in shaky 4-year-old writing was “E-D-D-I-E.”

I tilted the envelope in the light, and made out Polly’s name in pen underneath the pencil scribble. Unbelievable. 4-year-old Eddie had crossed out Polly’s name, written in his own, and dropped it in his own file!

It was ingenious. Nefarious, but brilliant. His cunning plan would have gone unnoticed if any other teacher had come over to investigate.

Clicking my tongue, I showed the envelope to Mom, who looked equally incredulous. I tore open the envelope to keep for Eddie’s mom, then handed the invitation to Polly. Tear-stained but triumphant, Polly headed for home with Mom while I turned to Eddie.

He denied everything. Until his mom showed up.

I showed her the envelope, barely hiding how impressed I was. She rolled her eyes and quizzed her son who finally confessed. He wanted to go to the party. Whose party, he had no idea, but he wanted to go. Mom doled out punishment (no Wii) and sent Eddie to get his coat.

Now able to grin, I looked at Mom and shook my head. “That’s genius,” I said to her quietly. “He’s like an evil little genius!” She just smiled and shook her head right back at me, “He’s smart, I know. He’s very clever. I just wish he wasn’t being clever about things like this!”

“I’m very impressed,” I said, laughing. I told her to hang onto the envelope, because it was awesome. She agreed, and took Eddie home. The next day, Mom walked Eddie over to Polly to apologize.

Eddie has since gone onto kindergarten, and I hope he has learned to harness his power for good and not evil.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent and bad-ass.