Teres is curled across the top of the bed, surfing the web on the laptop. I come in and lie down perpendicular, with my head touching hers. She’s lying with her head on her right arm; her hand is now in front of my stomach. She tickles it, and this happens:
“I do believe I was just tickled.”
“Did you get a good look at the culprit?”
“I’m still waiting for the field team to finish their work, but I’m pretty sure that it was… you!”
“No, I’m sure you were mistaken. It was a wooly worm.”
I grab the offending finger and hold it (carefully) up.
“You are a wooly worm? A four-foot-eleven wooly worm?”
She pouts. “All the other wooly worms made fun of me. They wouldn’t let me join their wooly worm gam–”
Now we are both giggling, trying to get our words out.
“You’re remarkably woolyless, for a wooly worm.”
“I thought you’d prefer it if I shaved.”
“That’s very thoughtful.”
“Thank you.”
“So you’re like, what, the Godzilla of wooly worms?”
“It’s a lonely existence.”
“So there should be a young Japanese wooly worm that will become your friend, and then be the only one who can stop you.”
“Why would I want someone to stop me?”
“Good point. If a wooly worm comes up to you and speaks Japanese, gish him.”
“I don’t know if I’d recognise Japanese or Chinese or Korean or… or… any other…”
“…ean,” we finish together, giggling again.
“So any wooly worm that speaks anything to you other than American, gish him.”
“What about an English wooly worm?”
“Better play it safe.”
“Canadian?”
“You can let him go, he’ll be more polite than the American ones. In fact, come to think of it, the American wooly worms are as likely to shoot you as any oth–”
“This is how Godzilla gets started!”
“Excuse me?”
“I totally get it. You never know which tiny creature is going to betray you and it gets easier and makes more sense to just start gishing all of them until you get fed up and go back into the ocean.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, outrageously indignant and red-faced from holding in the giggles. I hugged her and assured her that I would protect her from all the attacking wooly worms who would dare treat her wrong. She would be free, I promised, to do whatever she wanted without fear of military reprisal.
She said, “Oh, good” and started tickling me again.
This sort of thing happens a lot.