"Will you lose your powers?"

This was in response to my affirmative answer to her that I would produce a white rock.

When she was about 4, she had asked for a blue stone. I told her that I could make one for her.

How, she wanted to know. Magic, I said.

So I had gone down to Thinker Toys, where they have such things, and I had gotten a blue stone but also many others of different colors. I anticipated that she would ask for stones of other colors, and I wanted to be prepared.

Later that day, I produced the blue stone for her. She said she wanted a red one, too.

I said, Okay, but I have to think about it and concentrate. So I did, pushing my hands together as though I were creating a stone, and presto! There it was. A red stone.

"Mommy," Maia had blurted out, "Daddy made a stone!"

"How?" Mommy wanted to know.

"Magic!" came the confident reply.

Some years later, now, Maia had found her satchel of stones. She had wanted a green one.

"Okay," I had said. "I will try later on."

I had been working that day on a Complaint that I will need to file. But after Maia and Kristina had gone out to Costco, it occurred to me that I should go back down to "Thinker Toys" and get Maia her green stone.

I did, and while I was there, I picked up several others besides, just in case her desires expanded.

I got back home just ahead of Maia and Kristina. When they came in, I was at work on my laptop on the kitchen table, which is where they had left me.

Maia had forgotten about the stone. But when I produced it from her ear, she was taken once again.

"Can you make a silver one?" she wanted to know.

"Well, I can try," I said. I had two of them in my pocket, so I figured it was a pretty safe bet.

"Let me see," I said, squeezing my hands together.

When the two gray stones popped out, Maia was as excited as she had been when she was little.

"Mommy, Mommy, he did it!"

"What?" Kristina wanted to know.

"He made rocks!"

Kristina gave me a look.

"How do you do that?" Maia wanted to know.

"Love," I said. "That's what gives me the power."

We had watched TV for awhile.

Later she asked, "Can you make a black one?"

I knew for a certainty that I could.

"Yes, I think I can," I said.

That's when she asked me: "Will you lose your powers?" she wanted to know.

It turned out that she didn't want me to lose my powers and would withdraw her request if satisfying it would cause me to.

"No, Maia. I won't lose my powers."

And so I made a black rock for her.

Yesterday was my birthday.

John, Wednesday, July 28, 2010