David came into the living room where we were all chatting and catching up. He’s five and coltish and climbed up on his mom’s lap, who was sitting next to me on the sofa. He nestled into her with the whine of exhaustion and confusion and asked, “What food is in a palm tree?”
“In a palm tree?” Amber clarified.
David nodded and asked further, “Alaria says we have coconuts in the palm tree.”
“Well, yes, there are certain kinds of palm trees that have coconuts.”
Alaria is David’s older sister. She’ll be seven in a few days.
“But we don’t have any coconuts in our palm tree!” he continued.
Amber glanced at me and around the room. “We don’t have palm trees.” Amber, Mike (her husband), Alaria and David live in Gainesville, Florida. They’re out in the country which looks more like the North Carolina area where they’re from, with tall pines and maples and oaks, than the Florida most people know—coastal, with palm trees. Amber’s parents—Rick and Cynthia, who are my first cousins—have also moved in with them. Rick’s sister Pam, from Myrtle Beach, was visiting for the week and so Mama and I decided to drive up for dinner and see everybody. Yeah, it was far but sometimes that Christmas spirit moves in mysterious ways.
David squirmed and retorted emphatically. “Yes, we do! We have a palm tree!”
“Where?”
“In the house. Our palm tree. Alaria says there are coconuts in the palm tree but there aren’t any coconuts in the palm tree!”
The discussion had grown louder and whinnier. David was clearly over tired, past his bedtime; he and Alaria had expended vast amounts of energy beyond my imagination. He was clearly frustrated with his sister and growing frustrated with his mother.
Several of us added our two cents about different kinds of palm trees as David, all knees and elbows at odd angles, rotated on his mother’s lap. “You’re not listening to me!” he bellowed and ran out of the room.
We rather chuckled at what they must be arguing about and how the topic of coconuts in palm trees came up.
Soon David was back. More frustrated than ever. He said he looked, and there were no coconuts in
the palm tree.
“What palm tree, honey? We don’t have any palm trees.”
“You’re NOT LISTENING TO ME!!! LISTEN TO ME.”
We all sat wide-eyed watching this drama play on.
“I’m listening, David. You said there are coconuts in the palm tree...”
“NOOOOO. ALARIA SAID THERE ARE COCONUTS IN THE PALM TREE BUT THERE ARE NO COCONUTS IN OUR PALM TREE.”
“Calm down, David. We don’t have a palm tree---”
“We do! Inside our house we have a palm tree, our palm tree.” He stood up and began pulling her by the hand. “Come on, I’ll show you!”
She glanced at us as she got up, hand in his hand, “Excuse me, I’m off to see the palm tree we have inside our house.”
The rest of us chatted some more about the topic and soon Amber returned alone and took her place on the sofa, chuckling. “Pantry. He was talking about the pantry. He had asked Alaria what food was in the palm tree and she said coconuts so he went to the pantry and didn’t find any coconuts and went back to her and they argued about it. He was saying pantry. I just didn’t understand that’s what he was saying.”
David came back, a little bit calmer, but still confused and upset. He climbed up again on Amber’s lap. “Why does Alaria keep saying there are coconuts in the palm tree when there are no coconuts in our palm tree?”
“Honey, I don’t know, but you’re right, we don’t have any coconuts in the pantry. Alaria is just teasing you I guess.”
David stopped cold and stared up at her face. He slid off her lap and stood a little crooked like little kids do. “Pantry?” He said quietly, with furrowed brow. Humbly, thoughtfully he said, “Oh. That’s how you say it.” Off he ran and that was that.
Earlier he had wanted to open his box of M&Ms he’d gotten for Christmas because he was hungry, he said, and Amber told him if he was still hungry he needed to go to the pantry and find some real food, he’d had enough candy. It all made sense now. While he and his sister were playing in her room, he had asked her what food was in their palm tree....
POSTSCRIPT: If you have not seen “Christopher Robin” with Ewan McGregor, you MUST! Mama and I watched it this morning and it’s soooo good. PLUS, Pooh Bear does the same thing David was doing! Translating unfamiliar words Christopher said, into words and phrases that sounded similar. “Efficiency,” for example, became “a fish in the sea.” OF COURSE, the language aspect was my favorite bit!
