Mentor had a picnic after work, with live music. I invited Kelly down to hang with me, and Jean drove her down and dropped her off. After grabbing a bite to eat, we wandered around the campus -- the music was loud enough and bouncing off the buildings, so we could hear it anywhere. My friend Burr showed up and he and I got to talking, so Kelly ran off and engaged every kid in sight in playtime. She was chasing ducks, rolling down the hill in the grass, and generally being a terror.
I gave her several warnings that we were going to leave at about 7:15pm, since 'we' had already gotten in trouble with her Mom for not coming in from a walk before bedtime yesterday. She tried valiantly to ignore me, but eventually I called her in, got her shoes on and said "let's go." She was very unhappy.
Rather than let her drive things, Burr and I simply started walking toward the parking lot, talking and not looking back. An occasional swing of the head and peripheral vision check showed she was following, reluctantly, some fifty feet behind. However, that wasn't very satisfying, since we weren't seeing her dissatisfaction. She finally ran to catch up, until she was to one side and a few feet ahead, and then pullled a very unhappy face at us, just so we knew how she felt.
She snapped out of it quickly when I offered her a bite of the ice cream bar I'd picked up on the way out. Somehow the whole thing ended up in her hand!
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