Belle

You can't hate her, even though she is loud and obnoxious and spoiled. Her voice pierces straight through your flesh to your raw nerves and twists them in a knot in a split second. She has one volume - loud! But her golden curls are so bouncy and her eyes bluer than Glacier Lake in its most pristine season. Her curiosity knows no limit and she has apparently never been discouraged from exploration of any kind.

Her Mother was a quiet woman obviously overwhelmed by the energy of her young daughter. They were waiting for Dad to locate some books for a paper he was working on, and you could almost hear the Mom praying for him to be done quickly as she watched her little angel dart from chair to stairs to table to desk to fireplace to computer to shelves. I doubt she spent more than two consecutive seconds in any single location.

Her constant motion was narrated by her continuous dialogue. She never seemed to take a breath at any point and her brain ran non-stop in logical and illogical directions all at once, hypertexting from subject to subject like a summer butterfly chasing the scent of pollen. "I'm sitting in this chair in this big white chair and I'm climbing a mountain do you see this big big big mountain I can climb and run to the very very very tippy top and fight the big bears who live on the top of this mountain and now I am escaping the big bad bears and sliding down down to the meadow where the book people live who want me to eat them up like a snick snack yum yum yum but I have to spit the sour ones out and I spit spit spit into the big deep pit and I run away yuck to a pretty place with lots of flowers and fairies and magic dust and -"

I was tired just listening to her non-stop patter! Everything she made up related to what she was doing, but the words just ran out of her head past her mouth into the air without her even knowing she was doing it or that she should stop. I felt sorry for the Mom who wearily slumped into the nearest chair and held her head in her hands, shutting her eyes. She sighed a deep shuddering sigh.

People who were trying to work in the Library were beginning to get a bit antsy, watching the little girl with guarded looks and under their breath grins. You couldn't hate her, she was too innocent and fluffy to hate. I wandered upstairs and selected a few books from our juvenile reading collection that the education majors use and hauled them downstairs along with a pad of paper and a handful of pencils.

I stepped in front of her as she was dancing back towards her Mom and handed her a boldly colored picture book which she took and trotted over to the coffee table to look at. Her conversation continued non stop for awhile as she flipped from page to page. I was beginning to suspect someone had fed this little darling a bit too much sugar. As soon as she finished the book she tossed it to the floor and just as quickly I handed her another. Same drill. Flip, flip, flip, toss. Another book. This went on for about ten minutes. She was at least stationary and only bothering the people near the chairs with her chatter.

When we had gone through all the books I handed her the paper and pencils. I was concerned that she not scribble all over everything, but she kept it on the coffeetable at least. I could scrub that later. After ten more minutes, she began to slow a bit. There were pauses between the sentences. I picked up the books and began to actually read TO her while she chattered. While she never did sit completely still, her conversation became quieter and she seemed to try to listen. I read only about three words per page, making some of it up just to be able to move on. The Reader's Digest version of a picture book!

At long last her Dad appeared and picked her up. The minute she laid her head on his shoulder, she shut her eyes and fell soundly asleep! Her beautiful curls a mass about her angelic face, her eyelids fluttering slightly, her breathing steady and quiet. Her Mom never said a word. Just picked up her purse and followed the Dad and sleeping child out the front door. I don't know about her, but *I* was exhausted!