Chlo-Yo- Husband Wanted, Magicians Need Not Apply

Chloe Yvonne, my youngest niece who we affectionately call Chlo-Yo--I have a soft spot in my heart for her. I have said before not sure if the soft spot comes from being present when she entered this world or if she is the baby of the family; realizing youth ends with her.

Chlo-Yo worships her teenage cousins. There is something alluring to her about there style and "worldliness". Because at nine, fifteen and eighteen seem so worldly.

There is a beauty of reignited youth among the five girl cousins when they get together--suddenly at eighteen you are nine again. They find they are never to old to play dress up when-- you can paint the faces of your younger cousins and dress them in your formal dresses. An affair of this magnitude calls for a fashion show and a photo shoot. The danger of a another girl, the dog, feeling left out was captured on film--the laughter sparkles the moment.

The purity of Chlo-Yo's age allows her to find the spider in the grass everyone else sees past and, the desire to want to catch it in her hand.

Thursday evening she looked at me and said "I wish we could spend a day alone like we did the time we went to the zoo together and you pulled my tooth".

It is hard to refuse that cute round face. So we had the day she so desired. She sat next to me in the office coloring pictures, getting snacks of chocolate and flavored water from the staff lounge and helping a fellow co-worker stock a few shelves with office supplies. Next she enjoyed a magic show in the school's lobby. Then we went to lunch together; she ate a mushroom pizza and garlic bread and I had a small salad. I told her she was best lunch company I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

We came home and played Yahtzee--two games. Tricky Auntie that I am knew a game of Yahtzee was a summer way of jump starting her brain with those math facts on a three month hiatus. She is a bit worried about starting fourth grade--I know she'll do just fine.

It was on our ride home from lunch that she told me all about the magician who turned a banana into a bandanna. It was what she said next that makes me miss the innocence of my own daughters. "Auntie" she said, "how do you think the magician turned the banana into a bandanna?" I replied that magicians amaze me because I can never figure the trick. Then she says "I can't marry a magician because they don't make a lot of money but I think I will date one so I can find out how they do all those tricks then I'll know."

When the sun rises tomorrow and the cousins return to Michigan they know they will forever remain--connected.