February 16, 2022 on Hosemelia:

Tonas tells me that the Swizzlers are having a bowling tournament, but they are using 54 pins.
“Are you playing?”
“I’m not very good with roller skates, my dear.”
“Wait a minute. They’re bowling using roller skates?”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t how we bowl.”
“Well, perhaps you would be very good at this one.”
“No! I’m not good at bowling even without roller skates. Let me talk to Charlie.”
“Hi, Mommy, I just want you to know that this is not as easy as it looks.
“Tell me how you’re doing it.”
“Well, you’ve got to roller skate up to where you throw the ball. We’ve got a long way to skate up to it so you’re really, really fast! I have not got it in the gutters even once because I am very strategic about it. I think that we need to have some better rules. I think that doin’ a back flip and then throwin’ the ball is just showin’ off. Pinky’s the one who started this and now everybody wants to do it. I wouldn’t be complainin’ so much if it was really a better throw. You can’t use your arms when you’re throwin’ it.”
“Why did you decide to use 54 pins?”
“Kennedy said he was not good at it, but if there was a longer strip of pins maybe he could have been better. That gave us the idea to set a lot of them in there. (The pins are not in the formation we use. There are in a single straight line!) It makes the game longer. I did hit a hole in one. I knocked ‘em all down.”
(Remember that the pins are Swizzler-sized—smaller and not as heavy as regular bowling pins.)
“Pinky did a backflip and got a good spin on the ball. I don’t think it’s cheatin’ ‘cause nobody said you couldn’t. But now everybody’s wantin’ to do it and I wanta play by the rules. Papa said there are none so we have to just let everybody do what they want, and then when this game is over we can set some better rules. I think it was cheatin’, Mommy. She did a back flip and then she put it down on the toe of her skate and gave it a big push. She didn’t have her arm out or nuthin’. She had momentum and she just gave it a push forward. She tumbled a little but she didn’t get hurt.”
I can’t comment because I’m laughing. Finally, I’m able to say, “There’s no rules about the game you’re playing because we never use 54 pins.”
“Well, the president of the United States of America would have liked it so I think that it’s probably okay.”
“Okay, you can go back and play while I talk with your Papa.”
“Happy belated Valentine’s Day, Tonas.”
“You are very sweet. From every point and angle of this game it radiates out the geometries of the game of life. The game of life is something that has no rules—the heart guides it. I wish to start from today onwards stating that I love you, I adore you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
“It’s going to be incredible. We expect you here very soon. And we don’t expect you to leave. We know that you will stay with us, as Charlie would say, for the forevers.”
“Part of me can be there and part of me can continue working with the masters?”
“Yes, of course. That could be quite advantageous. The sixth dimensional individuals will be needing some extra help.”
“How about a kiss?”
“Happy Valentine’s to you as well.”

February 23, 2022, on Hosemelia:

l ask Charlie how the bowling tournament came out. He reports that his team and Pinky’s team tied.
“I really, really like my new ball. It makes sparks when it rolls. It was extra nice ‘cause we had nighttime bowling.”
“Did everybody’s ball sparkle?”
“My teams’ bowling balls sparkled and then everybody said they wanted sparkles. It was a beautiful tournament.”

In preparation for Cory and Liponie’s third set of babies—seven this time!—Charlie has made baskets with parachutes for the babies’ delivery.
“I even got a stork. I’ve been trainin’ him.”
“How is that working?”
“Well, I can’t get him to wear a bow tie, and he doesn’t like at all the vest I gave him. I showed him the cartoon. I don’t know what his problem is.”
“Does he want to wear anything?”
“He just wants to wear his feathers, Mommy.”
“Maybe you should just let him do that.”
“Well, okay, but. I just think it’s really important if you’re gonna be a Disney character you need to be a good one. You need a vest, and you need a hat, and you need a bow tie!”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to be a Disney character.”
“Who would not want to be a Disney character!”
“It looks like the stork doesn’t.”
(Sigh of exasperation) “I talk to him, and I talk to him, and I talk to him until I was almost a genie.”
“And he just keeps saying no?”
“He said that he likes to fly free. I said, ‘That sounds really good but can you please wear this vest.’ He said it was not comfortable for him and he didn’t like the hat. I’ve been makin’ a good case for the hat keepin’ the sun out of his eyes.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Papa said it takes a lot of different kind of storks to make a world. So I said maybe if I just show him Storky lots of times he will change his mind.”
“And maybe not.”
“Papa said it’s really important to honor people where they are. I said, ‘If he wants to be on Hosemelia, maybe he should be a little more helpful.’ We brought him there; storks aren’t part of Hosemelia. We told him we’d bring as many of his friends as he wanted. He said he’s always too busy carryin’ babies to have a lot of friends. I said, ‘You been missin’ out and we don’t have very many babies so maybe we could play.’ His eyebrow went up. I just don’t know what that eyebrow liftin’ thing means, so I’m not gonna read anythin’ into it.
“I thought it would be really smart to put up some pictures of Storky so he could see how beloved Storky is. Maybe he can think about how nice it would be to have a lot of friends.”
Tonas has been listening to us and smiling from ear to ear. In privacy, he urges me not to say anything about Dumbo. If Charlie doesn’t win Storky around to wearing an outfit, it won’t be for lack of trying.