This morning, before the sun was up, when a thin layer of ice still covered parts of Victoria, a five-year-old girl crawled into my bed and snuggled her cold, cold body next to mine. ”Guess what?” she said.
“Grahmph?” I replied.
“Today at school me and Miss M get to tell the joke of the day over the P.A. to the entire school.” Her frigid toes kicked my legs excitedly.
The Bobbsey Twins is what they are called by their teacher, Mrs. P.
“That’s really cool,” I said, now fully awake thanks to the cold and awesome news. ”Why do you get to do that?”
“Mr. T (their principal) told us if we told him a joke, we’d get to tell it over the morning announcements to the entire school.” Her words were fast and sing-songy. ”So we told him a joke we made up and he liked it.”
“You made up a joke?”
“Well Miss C (another friend) made it up but she didn’t want to say it over the P.A. so Miss M and I get to say it.”
“Then this is a really big day, isn’t it?”
“Yes it is!”
***
Walking to the kindergarten door later this morning the joke of the day conversation continued. Miss Q was hyper with a capital ‘H-Y-P-E-R’. “You know I’ve been practicing the joke of the day in my bed at night,” she whispered/giggled.
“Really?” Why was I just learning of all this prep and joke telling on the morning of the big day? How had this been missed from our daily chit-chats about school?
Miss M was equally H-Y-P-E-R. ”Guess what?” she asked. ”Me and Miss Q get to tell the joke of the day today.”
“That’s awesome,” I told her. But suddenly there was doubt. Would the adults remember these girls had been promised their moment in the morning announcement spotlight? Did the adults know how frenzied these two girls had become?
As they filed into their classroom, I hoped this super-awesome day wasn’t going to fizzle like a dud firework.
However, since morning announcements have already happened, this afternoon’s walk home will tell how the story ends.
In the meantime I will leave you with the joke the two budding comedians will hopefully have told the entire school this morning:
Q: Why did the whale cross the road?
A: To get to the other tide.
It is hilarious. What a great joke! Mum