So there were no big Lotto wins - we'll buy more tickets with the few winning tickets. I think that it was about half. About right.
Our neighbors C& M are both natives of Lumignano, and both have lots of family still living here. . They have a huge extended they are all involved in the scratch off games -- I think that she has at least three brothers and one sister (all of whom are married with children). I think that there were at least 40 people, gathered -- just to hang out and scratch and pass the time.
It got late. We were tired. I'll be happy when my house is only a few steps away.
Chas a younger (early 20's) sister, who always organizes games for the children -- whether it be a simple game of catch or red light-green light -- she enjoys entertaining them, and she is good at it. Maddy is all over it. I love to spy as she interacts in Italian with the the other kids because with us it is English only.
So Cgathers the gang of children and starts with balls and then soon has them seated quietly in a circle -- this time it's Maddy and six boys. I notice that she has an empty soda bottle, and I notice that it is spinning. And, yes. . . you got it -- they are playing Spin the Bottle. Just like that. Spin the Bottle. Right there by the light of the full moon on the blacktop. Spin the Bottle. Six boys and my four-year-old daughter. Spin the Bottle. C cheerfully directing the moves. Spin the . . . . My immediate reaction is to pounce over and remove my innocent young one from the game of debauchery, but no one else seems to mind, so I uncomfortably decide just to observe. I notice one grandmother watching without a look of concern but rather with a content smile upon her sleepy face. Certainly if it is okay with Nonna, it should be okay with me. It goes smoothly as long as it is boys kissing boys, and for quite a while that's how the game progresses. I'm secretly hoping, wishing, praying that Maddy only has to deal with kissing the 2 year old, but, as the stars would have it -- it's the 8 year old's bottle that stops pointed directly at Maddy. She sits still, waiting, clearly expecting Eliah to lean over and plant his little 8-year-old lips on her cheek.He just out right refuses to do it. No way. Poor Maddy -- such rejection. They all laugh. She just sits without much reaction. I'm dying, just dying watching her deal with it, thinking I should have pulled her out of it. I should have been the protective mother that my instinct tells me to be. I should have "overreacted." It only lasts several seconds, and then C notices the uncomfortable conflict and quickly smooths it over by somehow convincing the little one to give Maddy a kiss. He agreed. She promptly lifted her hand to her cheek to wipe off any traces of the kiss. They all laughed again, hysterically, except this time Maddy was included in the laughing. All was good.
Next time -- I tell you, I will certainly pull her from the innocent game of Spin the Bottle -- certainly. One experience of that is enough.
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