Friday night my 4 year-old grand-fabulous-daughter Ava and I had a sleepover. As we drove into my neighborhood, I noticed water pouring down the sidewalk of an unoccupied townhouse.
I said, “Wow! A pipe must have burst. “
Ava asked, “A pipe?”
“Yeah,” I said, “We need to call somebody.”
In the thirty seconds between seeing the house with the busted pipe and driving into my garage, Ava fretted about the leak. She asked who we were going to call and what was going to happen. I told her we would call the City of Beaumont and someone would come out to fix the pipe. When we got in my house, I called the city and was told that they had many calls about busted pipes because of the drought we've been experiencing, so it might be a while before someone checked on the pipe.
Ava immediately went into action. “We need to call my mom and dad! We need to tell them we called Beaumont Texas The City! We need to go check on the house again. We need to check the pipes!”
We put our things away and walked down the street to the scene of the great busted pipe incident. We sat on the sidewalk and waited for a “Beaumont Texas The City” repairman to arrive. When he got there, he began explaining to me what would happen next. I said, “Oh, it’s not my house. We’re just nosy.” He said a crew would be out as soon as possible, but probably not until the next morning. Disappointed, we went back home.
At 6:20 a.m. the next morning, Ava jumped out of bed and announced, “Grandma! I’m ready to put on my day clothes. We have to go check the pipes.”
We checked on the pipe several times that morning and, at one point, brought chairs and water and Ava’s baby doll Mary and hung out down there for a while. When we decided the pipe wasn’t going to be fixed before lunch, we left the situation to the fine people of “Beaumont Texas The City” and went to lunch at my mom’s house.
When we got to my mom’s, Ava explained the dire pipe situation to my mom and my sister including the fact that the man from “Beaumont Texas The City” said we were “rosie.” We all looked at each other. Rosie? Ah. Not "rosie." Nosy. I had told the repairman that we were being nosy. I’m guessing that at some point in Ava’s long life, someone has called her “Nosy Rosie.” The logic of a 4 year old.
The next day, our family got together for a pre-Fourth of July celebration. Ava and I went in the back yard and found that my mom had tiny bugs all over her patio. Not thinking, I said, “Rue needs to call somebody.”
Once again, Ava sprang into action. She ran into the house, grabbed “Rue” (that’s what she calls my mom whose name is Ruby), grabbed anybody else who would follow her and picked up a cordless phone from my mom’s nightstand. She led everyone outside to the patio while punching numbers on the phone.
She told everybody, “Don’t be afraid! It’s not ants! It’s just doodlebugs! Everybody relax! I’m calling Beaumont Texas The City! It’s okay!”
I looked at Jamie, Ava’s mom, and said, “She’s very pro-active, isn’t she?”
Jamie just nodded her head and smiled.
Suddenly, Ava shouted, “She’s talking to me! Beaumont Texas The City is talk….”
Then, she stopped and listened.
She turned to us and said, “She says she’s sorry.”
We all looked at each other and looked back at Ava. Ava handed the phone to me and then went back into the house to tend to other important business.
When I took the phone, I could hear the recording, “I’m sorry. The number you have reached is not in service. Please hang up and dial again.”
Ava was satisfied with the obvious deep concern that the anonymous woman at "Beaumont Texas The City" had with Rue’s doodlebug infestation. All she needed was to hear a friendly voice say they were sorry. Life is simple when you're four.
