Downtown

I’m not going to eat that. It’s pineapple. I hate pineapple – you know that. Why would you give me pineapple? The only food I’ll eat is blue. It has to be blue. Well, maybe brown, like chocolate. But that’s it. Just blue and brown.

Why do I have to put this white shirt on? I don’t want to wear a fancy shirt. I want to go outside and roll around in the grass. I want to go up the street and play with Jules. His mom never makes him wear a white shirt and go to a big building downtown. Why do I have to go anywhere? I want to stay home.

This car is too big for us. Only two people in this big car? We’re rattling around in here like two marbles in a big empty jar. I don’t want to go anywhere, especially to a big building downtown.

I like to go downtown to Dad’s office for lunch. I don’t want to go now. I don’t want to go to some other building. I like Dad’s office. Why can’t we go there?

Why do we have to ride in this elevator? I hate elevators – they’re scary, and they make my stomach fall down. I want to climb up the stairs, and I don’t care if it’s twenty-eleven stories up.

It’s cold in here. This room is too big. Who are all these people? Who’s the guy in the choir robe behind that high desk up at the front? Who’s that guy in the suit sitting with Dad over there at that other table? Dad is waving to me. Why can’t I go over there?

You promised I could go see Dad at his office next week, so I’m going. But don’t forget -- at home, no pineapple.