For my birthday, Biscuit picked out a heart-shaped ruby necklace. His rationale was "Red is your favorite color, and hearts mean I love you." Sounds good to me.
Friday afternoon, we stopped at an antiques store that had all kinds of cool stuff, including jewelry. Biscuit saw a pair of earrings he wanted to get for me, but 1. they were too expensive, and 2. they were SO heavy that I doubt I would ever wear them.
When I told him that we couldn't get the earrings, he lost it. He just sobbed the most pitiful tears ever. Part of it was for not getting to buy me the jewelry. And part of it was because he spent the better part of Thursday in the car, then another couple of hours Friday in the car, and the activities we were taking part in were not really kid-friendly. Throw in the fact that he hadn't had a nap, and it was just sad.
I convinced Biscuit to walk around with me a little bit, and I showed him this vase that I loved. It was blue and white rectangle with a frog lid.
"Check this out," I said to him. "Wouldn't this be perfect for when you pick flowers for me? You could put one flower in each of these holes on top."
But he wasn't buying it. Literally!
My Mama came and got Biscuit and walked around with him. I made a lap around the store, drooling over all the fun stuff they had. Then I looped back through the room with the vase. I convinced myself about halfway through the store that I was going to buy it. And it was only $8.
I got back to the table where I had seen the vase, and it was gone!
I saw the woman who owns the store and asked her if she knew what happened to it. I explained that I wanted to buy it, but couldn't find it.
"I'm sorry," she said. "A woman JUST bought it. She said it would be perfect for when her grandson picked flowers for her."
I was so mad. I mean, I need another vase like I need a hole in the head, but for something different, unusual, pretty and cheap, I was going to find a spot at home for it.
But alas, it wasn't meant to be.
We all met at the front of the store (Jeff, me, Biscuit, my Mama and my Uncle), and we started walking out.
The owner pointed to Biscuit and said, "Is that your son?"
"Yes," I said. And she had a weird look on her face.
I noticed that she looked over at Mama, but I was still too dense to put together what was happening.
Biscuit was still in a bad place, so when we got to the car, Mama called him over to her side. Biscuit walked up to the driver's door and handed me a bag. I looked inside, and guess what I found? The vase!
I made a big fuss with Biscuit, asking how in the world he could pull such a big trick on me. And it did seem to cheer him up.
Then I grabbed the bag and walked back into the store.
I found the owner, straightening some books on a shelf. She had her back to me when I said, "The woman who bought this was my Mama!"
She turned around and had big tears in her eyes. "As soon as I saw y'all walking out together, I knew what was going on. That was just the sweetest thing," she said.
Then she grabbed me and hugged me.
Here's my pretty new vase:
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