Ballet Boy

In a stark contrast to this story from last week, I bring you a story today that has absolutely no exaggeration whatsoever. As unbelievable as it may sound, every word of this story is true.

It started one evening with my wife shouting, "Jeff! There are kids in our yard!" We peeked out the windows.

There were two boys, aged approximately 6 and 10. They were putting up every body's mailbox flags. My wife stepped outside and glared at them from the porch. The boys quickly put our flag back down, then ran across the street and sat on the curb.

A few minutes later my wife peeked out the window again and nearly fell over laughing. "Jeff! One of them is dancing!"

It's a little hard to tell in the pictures, but the younger of the two boys was pirouetting around by our mailbox. He was prancing, leaping, and spinning like a pro. The older boy looked embarrassed.

My wife stepped outside again. This time the boys didn't notice her, but she heard part of their conversation.

"I'm taking ballet at school!"
"Why don't you play sports, man?"
"I like ballet!"

My wife came in and shared the conversation with me. We were both laughing out loud at "our little ballerina" prancing around our front yard. And then, the doorbell rang.

"No way," I said. I ran to the door, concerned that maybe the boys had gone from awkward frolicking to ding-dong-ditch. I opened the door, expecting to see the departing backsides of the two boys. Instead, the youngest one was standing there, politely looking up at me.

"Do you want to watch us do ballet?" he asked.

I put on a moderately stern face. Inside, I was nearly shaking with the effort of not laughing. My mind shouted, "We've been watching you through the window, you little dork!", but my mouth simply said, "No."

The kid was unfazed. "Are you sure?"

I admired his innocent perseverance, although part of me was thinking, "What, you didn't hear me the first time?". Out loud I simply said, "I'm sure. Thank you."

He shrugged. "OK." He pranced off our porch and started buzzing circles around his desperately embarrassed friend.

We shut the door and I ran to the bathroom. I was laughing so hard I almost had an accident.

"A little boy rang our doorbell and asked if we wanted to watch him do ballet."

Best. Doorbell. Ever.