Just for a laugh...

Ashlynn at the Canadian Pet Store

When Ashlynn was 3 ½ we left Tunisia, N. Africa for a much needed Summer break and headed to Canada to relax in Calgary with my mom and younger brother, Kelly. It was a fabulous summer and the girls learned how to start calming down around other people; as Tunis had them paranoid. They were paranoid from playing at the park and getting run over by rude Arab boys who had no concept of proper play with little white girls and so, they in turn had no idea how to make friends outside of the American Embassy compound. Not only that but for safety measures I never let go of their hand when we were in public. Anyhow, they were definitely shell-shocked in this Western culture and I suppose so was I.

I say this because as I was driving home from the grocery store with my mother one evening, around sunset, I observed a young teenager in a small pair of shorts and tank top walking along a stretch of road that ran aside the highway. I immediately panicked and took in a sharp breath, and then I started laughing. It had crossed my mind that she wasn’t wearing enough clothing and since it wasn’t a densely populated area she was going to get raped. But in reality, her outfit was more than reasonable for the circumstances of the era and people didn’t have to worry about dressing with everything covered there. Not only that but she wouldn’t be looked at in such a sexual way for her dress nor was it dangerous for her, by any means, to be walking in that place alone.

So here we are in Calgary and for an evening activity we go to the pet store. The girls had never been to a pet store as there weren’t many in Okinawa and it was very limited in Tunisia. As a matter of fact we saw more living (and dead ) species at the food market than the “pet” store across the street from it. As a side note it was a very amusing day the day they had a live squid for sale that crawled across the floor and then stuck to the butcher’s leg for entertainment. We had to go back to the stinky, fish part every time after that but there never was such a “lively” performance repeated. We had to make due with the guys who would smack them as we walked by to show them suddenly flail and gasp through their fins displaying how fresh they were as they called out in French the names and prices. So back to the original story, we walk into the pet store and the girls have ear to ear smiles as they are drawn to the kittens that they have caged at the entrance; and their excitement attracts the attention of the bored saleslady who comes over to engage them in conversation.

Now my girls were slow to start talking and a bit shy from being overseas but once they get started every embarrassing family secret and bodily function could come out in course of a conversation. Brielle is even prone to start improving and fooling random strangers into believing that she goes to a school with 130 teachers and 9 brothers…well, that’s about the time I think they figure it out, but the point is that the girls love to talk. So, here’s the conversation I overhear when the saleslady asks Ashlynn if she has a kitten or wants another one:

I want a kitten but I can’t have one because my brother, Max will eat it (Max is a 130 pound Mastiff, but the lady doesn’t know this). I’m waiting for him to die and then my mom said I can have one. (Keep in mind that the lady still doesn’t know that her brother is a dog.) He’s in Africa with my dad. I wanted to bring him but my dad wouldn’t let me because he’s too big and he’s black.

I was sitting in the background dying! The poor saleslady had no idea and Ashlynn didn’t realize that there was anything wrong with what she had just said. So I had to step in and save her. At this point it wasn’t worth the explanation of why Africa and who Max the dog was. So we just redirected her to the rabbits and away from the horrified lady who still might remember the child who was waiting for her “big, black, African brother to die so she could get a kitten he wouldn’t eat!”