Lunch Post: Creature at the bodega [UPDATED]
The other day the Boy said, half to himself, “I can’t wait ’til I’m eight, so I can have my own key and go to the bodega by myself.”
Bodegas, for readers outside New York, are tiny stores that fill the ecological niche that 7-11s occupy in the suburbs. The population density in most neighborhoods can support several bodegas close to each other, even four to an intersection in Manhattan. We have two by us, each 200 feet from our door, in opposite directions, just far enough away to be out of reach to a 7-year-old on his own. We’ve never discussed when Ben would be allowed to venture out to get a soda by himself, so the 8-year-old mark is his own invention.
Clearly, this creature is taking its first tentative independent steps. Just as clearly, it lives in a distant world where a quarter will still buy something.
Ben explains: “Evil bunny is a monster bunny. Instead of eating carrots, it eats people dressed up as carrots. He’s inside a force field and those are scratches on it. The creature is bored of having a regular bunny as a pet and wants an awesome one.”
Yeah,indeed he has a rich fantasy life,,where apparently a Quarter can buy a supercharged,malevolent bunny,or bunny of any sort. He’s cute,creative and clever(I sight the almost non-hint of haviving a housekey by his next birthday). Funny!
That bunny is so great. I love the scratches on the force-field ball. Rob, sorry but your creature is not nearly as interesting as Ben’s bodega creature.