TODDLER EPICS

Well, I ripped open my shirt and got there at the speed of light, immediately concealing my true identity in the guise of Robert Brady, mild-mannered grandfather (lower-case-g, unlike the big red letter on my blue spandex top). Kasumi and Kaya set off at once for Pinocchio, as expected. Soon after, however, Echo said she was going to her favorite rotenburo in the area for a quick hot bath. Suddenly it was all up to SuperG again, one twin climbing each mighty leg.

A while after Echo had left, and the home interior limitations had been exhausted, I said (betraying no desperation) "Let's go to the park!" The front door slammed twice and I was alone. I trotted after the two tiny figures in the distance, toddling hastily along the sidewalk in a parkish direction. When we got there under the blazing 2pm sun, you could have cooked eggs, bacon and a side order of home fries on the sliding board, so Miasa took one of the swings and Mitsuki the other, and I began to push them.

And then the most amazing thing happened: after they'd swung back and forth for a while and had picked up the rhythm, they began singing together. Rather Miasa started, simply repeating a variety of three-syllable rhythm markers, loudly but in a very affecting four-beat melody; then Mitsuki syncopated in with both note and rhythm, and began singing about the events of the day, starting from early morning and working on toward the present, with bits of their overall greater (three-year!) history interjected here and there, in what can only be called a spontaneous toddler epic in the oral tradition.

After a while of listening, as an irrepressible whistler I just had to join in as rhythmomelodic backup, so we went on like that, I pushing and whistling, the occasional passersby stopping to stand and watch, as these little twin girls sang their beautiful spontaneously made-up melody with entertaining lyrics, for over an hour!

There was even a sly joke in there, that went like this (my translation):
na-na-KYU-u/Mama is gone and that's ok (swing)
na-na-KYU-u/Kaya is gone and that's ok (swing)
na-na-KYU-u/Echo is gone and that's ok (swing)
na-na-KYU-u/Bob is here and that's not good (swing)
(with sidelong glance at me to see if I got it)

I wish I'd had a tape recorder, but contrary to common belief, SuperG can't think of everything. Besides, twins are a lot like kryptonite.