the deck | late morning | sunday | april 25

[decoder_rings]

Staying inside was for lazy grown ups who only wanted to watch boring television. If it wasn't cartoons or something going boom, Hannibal didn't want to be there. He, instead, wanted to be outside. The deck proved the best sort of place for an energetic youngster because there were things to climb on and hide under and jump off of! So, of

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[armybrat_lois]

Once again Lois was spending her weekend covered head to toe in dirt and leaves and grass and whatever else you'd expect a child to roll in.

"That was a cool fall!" The only way it would have been better for her is if he landed in a huge pile of mud.

[decoder_rings]

"It was the best!" Hannibal crowed, scrambling back to his feet and climbing up on the table again. "Come on, you can see the whole world from up here!"

Except not but what did he care?

[armybrat_lois]

"'Kay!" Like Lois needed much convincing to do something potentially dangerous. She scrambled to get up on the table, managing to get mud everywhere in the process of doing so. She pretty much left a trail behind her like that kid from Family Circus.

There was a look of a disappointment when she got up there. "You can't see the whole world from here! Where's Disneyland?"

[decoder_rings]

"Um." Hannibal didn't have an answer to that so he just pointed. "It's over dere! It's closed right now so we can't see it! The rides will be alive in a few hours!"

[armybrat_lois]

"You're such a liar!" Disneyland was open all the time. Duh.

[decoder_rings]

"Yeah, well, you're a dirty girl!" Hannibal retorted. "And I'm not a liar! The rides gotta sleep too!"

[armybrat_lois]

"They do not!" Lois didn't mind being called dirty, unsurprisingly. "They're machines. They don't need to sleep."

[decoder_rings]

"How do you know?" Hannibal asked, fixing her with a wee glare. "You're not a machine, you dun know what they do!"

[armybrat_lois]

"My dad works with machines all the time," Lois said matter-of-factly. "He drives tanks and stuff and they never get tired."

[decoder_rings]

"They could break though." He'd broken enough of his toys to know that. "What if the rides are all broken?"

Tragic!

[armybrat_lois]

"People can fix it!" she said. "Unless it's been blowed up. Then you can't fix it."

[decoder_rings]

Hannibal's argument about the rides was forgotten for a moment. "Have you seen things get blowed up?"

[armybrat_lois]

"Lots of things!" Lois said, nodding enthusiastically. "I live with army peoples! They've got guns an' grenades an' bombs!"

[decoder_rings]

"Wow!" Okay, Hannibal was impressed. "Do you any bombs of your own? Can we play with 'em?"

[armybrat_lois]

"I gots my own." What a liar. "But they're at the base. Civilians shouldn't play with bombs anyway. You'll hurt yourself."

[decoder_rings]

"Would not," Hannibal scoffed, shaking his head. "I'm not a civilian. I'm a King!"