From the Balcony

Dominic is out on the balcony, staring between the bars, intently watching the older children playing below. He doesn't take his eyes off them for fifteen minutes. He just alternates between standing, sitting on his stool, and perching on the edge of the turtle sandbox. I keep watch from my computer chair in the nice, air-conditioned inside, just five feet from him. I am pleased he's found a diversion from his shrieking.

I hear one child say, "Look, it's Dominic." "Hi, Dominic."

Another, slightly higher voice, "Is he trying to climb out?"

"No, he can't, he's too little."

A boy chimes in, "What if he's like superman?"

Another boy, "Yeah, or spiderman!"

The girl with the higher voice adds her last two cents, in a somewhat reproachful tone, "Yeah, where's his mother. Shouldn't she be watching him?!"