She wore a mischievous grin,
placed hand on hip,
pointed her plump finger at me, and said,
“Dad! You be the Joker and I’ll be – Batgirl!”
She zapped me with her energy —
HahaHAHAHahAhahahaHA!
I WAS the JOKER!
“Oh! You think you can stop me, Batgirl?!
We’ve been down this road before and
I always…”
“Fall asleep, Joker!”
she waved her command at me
and I fell limp to the rug,
snoring loudly.
She snickered
and jumped on top of me,
“Got you now, bad guy!”
Meanwhile…I snored.
Pushing herself off of me,
she stood straight up
and waved her finger at me again,
“Now…be a…
PINK UNICORN,
dad!”
I whinnied and bucked
onto hands and knees
(ahem)…hooves
and pranced around the area rug.
She climbed on my back
and we galloped until she was bored
or I was out of breath —
I don’t remember which came first.
Either way,
it was good
to be the Joker or
a pink unicorn.
WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR
Andy Schoenborn
When I was in my thirties it was easier to get down the ground and play with my children. We would make up wrestling names and have pretend battles. We would play the silliest game of “horsey” you’ve ever seen. We would pretend play act scenes with villains and heroes where they always won. Now that I am in my forties it is not as easy for me to get on the ground to play with my youngest (almost five-year-old) daughter. I find myself making excuses at times to avoid the challenges of creaky knees and sapped energy. Still, my daughter compels me once-in-awhile to escape into play with her and that’s when the magic happens. We are transported – on her command – to a land of make believe that takes me back to my childhood and creates memories for hers.
REVISION DECISION
My aim was to transport my audience immediately into the scene at the command of my daughter and intentionally had the speaker jump into character in line six with the familiar maniacal laugh of the Joker, “HahaHAHAHahAhahahaHA!” The immediate shift in tone captured the moment of play and prepared the audience for the quick back-and-forth transformations we experienced together.