a naked green

Sam looked over at me with eyes full of a mixture of accomplishment and mischief. Whatever he was about to tell me, it would probably be good.

"A naked green!" he proclaimed, almost triumphantly. For a moment, his strange and surprising words caught me off guard. Then the laughter that I had swallowed before it bubbled from my lips came out instead as a wide smile. In his small four-year-old boy hand Sam held up a green crayon, one that was missing it's paper wrapping.
"I see," I answered, oh so amused. Anna perhaps, or maybe Madeline, glanced over at me with a kind of sheepish pride.
"I named it that," she said. "Any of the crayons that don't have wrapping are naked!"

They continued to color, then Sam held up another crayon.

"Look! ANOTHER naked green!" he cried. It obviously tickled the children to say the word "naked", for though Sam looked as pleased as ever, the girls giggled.

The three siblings continued to color and draw, each of them drawing a picture for me, I might add. Sam was not quite two when I first started babysitting them. I have come to know and love these children, as well as the four children of another family who lives two houses away. Both families are best friends, and I often watch all of them together. If they weren't such well-behaved children, and if I hadn't grown up with eight younger siblings, this could be quite a challenge. But they know me and listen to me, and, as they signed on the pictures they gave to me, love me, and I them.

I don't remember how the conversation turned to marriage, but somehow it did.
"I'm going to marry Emma when I grow up," Sam stated matter-a-factly, still coloring.

"I'm going to marry Eli!" Anna exclaimed.

"I'm going to marry Jack," Madeline said, a note of seriousness to her voice. Emma, Eli and Jack are all in the family two houses down. I knew that Jack and Madeline had decided on marrying each other for some time now; once, Jack had looked ernestly at his mom and said, "Mom, someday, when Madeline and I get married and go on our honey ride ..." but that was all his mom heard because through the rest of his small speech she had to work hard to keep from bursting out laughing. Jack and Madeline are age eight now, I believe. I wonder what will really happen as they grow up. It's natural for kids to imagine being grown up and married, and for them to choose a friend with whom they play and plan grown-up things with. Right now they are so sure. I wonder how everything will actually work out.