Pop!

One sunny afternoon, as spring was fading into summer, Lydia was outside playing a game of hide and seek. She loved hide and seek so much. That’s when she heard something that she just couldn't get out of her head. 

She was crouched down in the perfect hiding place, a huge gardenia bush blocking her from being found by her older brother Latham. Next to the gardenia was a cozy little bench where the grownups rested and sometimes gossiped. Today her mother sat there with her friend and neighbor, Catherine. Upon hearing her aunt's name, Lydia quietly scooted closer to see what she could hear next. 

Catherine was asking about her aunt. Lydia's aunt was eight and a half months pregnant and fast approaching her due date. Catherine wanted to know all about how Katie was doing, how she was feeling, and if it was almost time. Time for what? Lydia wondered to herself. Then, she heard her mother say, "oh poor Katie, she is ready to pop any day now," and Lydia's eyes widened as she tried to muffle the gasp she let out. 

Forgetting all about being found now, she crawled out from under the bush and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her in search of her brother Latham. Suddenly, she crashed into Latham, knocking the both of them down. "Latham, Latham!" She screamed at him, the sound of her voice starting to scare him as well. "Something is wrong with Katie! I don't know what to do, we have to save her." Confused, her brother asked, "What do you mean something is wrong with Katie, she's fine." "No, you don't understand. I just heard mama telling Catherine that poor Katie was about to pop. To POP Latham! Do you know what that means?!" "Pop?" he questioned, as they both stood there puzzled and wondering what would happen if their aunt really did pop. 

For the rest of the evening all the two siblings could do was wonder what "pop" meant, when it would happen, and what they could do to help their aunt. Finally, Lydia asked her brother, "Do you think it will be like a balloon popping and she will just burst into pieces and we have to pick her up? That would be horrible." "No," her brother replied. "It will probably be more like popcorn popping; the weather is getting warm out so she will just probably make pop-pop-pop sounds when she gets too hot until......oh. Until she explodes like a popcorn kernel!" "Oh no!" Lydia was even more frightened now. Seeing this, her brother quickly said "It has to just be like those little pop-it noise makers Dad always throws by our feet on 4th of July. Nothing bad will happen, she will just start making loud pop sounds that scare us sometimes. That’s got to be it." "Oh, I know!" Lydia exclaimed now, "Or it will just be like my cereal I eat for breakfast in the mornings. It goes snap-crackle-Pop! She will just start sounding like that from now on. That's not so bad. That’s kind of silly. Do you think we’ll need to pour milk on her too? I wonder why she's going to start popping soon." 

As the night continued on the kids kept trying to figure out what else pop could mean for their aunt. "It could be like my favorite candy, you know the rocks that pop," Latham said. "They just fizzle and pop until.... until they disappear. What if Katie disappears after the pop?" “Do you think we’ll be able to find her again? Ya know if she pops and disappears?” Lydia was really worried now. “Hey, it could also be like bubbles maybe?” Latham suggested, trying to comfort his sister but himself as well. “You mean, she will be bubbles soon and we will have no choice but to pop her because popping bubbles is just too much fun, you can’t not pop them.” “Oh, yea. I didn’t think of that.”

The two sat silently for several minutes, pondering all the things that might happen to their dear aunt Katie when and if she popped. Lydia was first to break the silence. "Remember when I used to have that jack in the box toy? It was so much fun to wind and listen to the music.... but then POP! It would scare me so much I had to stop playing with it." Lydia continued on. "What if she just pops so loud she scares everyone away and then will be all alone? Oh, that will make her so sad too. I think we should call her tomorrow."  

It was at that very moment they both realized the same thing, remembering that old jack in the box toy and the tune it had played. At once they both exclaimed, "What if she goes pop just like the weasel did?!" Followed by Lydia's worried voice "I, I still don't know what happened to that weasel....." Tossing and turning, the children did their very best to fall asleep that night, with nonstop concern for aunt Katie on their minds.

The next day, instead of going to school, Lydia and Latham were told by their parents that they were going to visit aunt Katie at the hospital. The hospital?! They exchanged frightened glances with one another. Had it happened? Had Katie popped? Was she going to be okay? On the car ride to the hospital Latham whispered to his little sister, “Maybe it’s a good pop, like when we ate those juicy grapes at Nana’s house. They popped in our mouth and were so tasty you couldn’t help but smile.” “Or a giant thought she was a grape because she’s so round and tried to pop her in his mouth but instead spit her out, like a sour grape, and now she’s hurt from the fall.” Neither child had a very good feeling about what they were about to see.

At the hospital they hugged their aunt, who looked just fine— although her big round tummy looked very different now. They got to meet and even hold their newest cousin, baby Bella. Everything seemed to be fine. But just what had 'she's ready to pop' meant, and when was it going to happen? The two youngsters still didn’t know, all they could do was wait…