“So we’ve got the witch and the wardrobe, but we still haven’t seen the lion.”

— Natasha’s observation when we put the book away at the end of chapter 5 tonight.

We started this book back before Grandma died, when Melody was barely two and Natasha was 3 1/2.

They listened well, especially considering their ages, but it seems with all the turmoil I myself didn’t have the attention-span to stick with one book to the end.

I was exceedingly proud of them, for their attentiveness and their willingness to sit and listen, even as I questioned their maturity of comprehension.

Mentioning it to Grandma one of the mornings I was with her in the hospital she said, “Well, it’s probably because of the way you read it. You know, since you’re…”

“A storyteller?”

“Yes.”

It was the first reference she’d made to that skill set since she came to my performance of The Rumor of Pavel and Paali the summer before. I felt highly acknowledged and complemented.

A few months later we started to play the movie (I’d gotten it for Jay’s birthday that spring and we still hadn’t finished it).  For the first few minutes we let them watch it with us then thought better of it.

Natasha required no explanation of the movie, and went on talking about events that happen after the point we stopped the movie. It was obvious she remembered what we had read (and felt remembering part of a novel was no big deal) and made the connection herself between the book and movie.

Whether that was from the title, content or some combination of the two we were never sure.