depressed"Mom," I asked her when I came out, "What does BRAMO IS A BOT mean?"
She looked at me a bit quizzically. "What does WHAT mean?"
"BRAMO IS A BOT. It's written on a Post-It note on the inside of your bathroom door."
She considered this for a moment. "It's probably from Taylor," she decided. "Bring it here, and I'll translate it."
Taylor, by the way, is my six-year-old nephew who just started first grade this week.
"There's another one too," I told her. "It says GAND IS A BOX."
I went and got the mysterious Post-Its and brought them to her. She squinted at them through her glasses for a few minutes, holding them out farther away, then nearer in as she examined them.
"Well, that one probably means Gandi," she said, thoughtfully. (Gandi is Mom's Maltese puppy.) "And I don't think it's BOX. I think that's BOT, too."
"Okay, so what's it all about?" I asked her.
"I ..." she paused, and looked at me helplessly. "I have absolutely no idea."
"But you SAID you could translate!" I accused her.
"Well, yes, I thought I could but ... BRAMO IS A BOT ... BRAMO ... BOT ..."
She gave a little shrug, and we both started giggling. A thought occurred to me. "You know, Taylor's always saying 'such and such is a butt. Maybe that's 'but' and not 'bot.' The o isn't quite closed really. Maybe he's trying to say 'Gramma is a butt' but doesn't quite have 'Gramma' down yet."
Mom looked at me soberly. "You could be right," she admitted.
"But if you don't mind," she went on a bit loftily, "I'd prefer to think that he was trying to say BRAMO IS A BOT."
And, well, when it comes right down to it ... who wouldn't?
