What Could It Be?

Skylar finished applying her makeup and smiled at her reflection in the mirror. She glanced over her outfit, adjusting her posture as she went. Her work held a banquet every year but this time she was the one being promoted. 

A knock on the bathroom door startled her out of her thoughts and she quickly rushed to open the door. Her husband, Mark, stood waiting for her outside the door. 

“You don’t want to be late for your big event,” he commented with a smirk as she rushed past him to grab her purse from the bed. 

“I know, I was just leaving. Remember, Tommy needs to get to bed early because it’s still a school night for him but you two have time to watch one show together if you want.” Skylar kissed her husband and hurried down the stairs to find their son. 

Mark chuckled and rolled his eyes as he followed her down the stairs. “I know how bedtime works, Skylar, we’ve been doing this for four years now.”

Mark and Tommy stood together watching Skylar slip her shoes on and speed through reminders about the night. Finally Mark cut her off by putting a hand on her arm.

“Just enjoy your night. We’re going to watch Tommy’s show then go to bed. Don’t worry about us.” Mark’s regard allowed Skylar to take a deep breath and smile more naturally.

“Thanks, Mark. I’ll be back around nine so I might be able to catch you before Tommy’s asleep.” She smiled at her husband and son one last time before closing the door behind her on her way.

The two boys watched as her car pulled away, Tommy mostly confused at the concept of a work event at night and Mark proud of the promotion his wife was about to get. He wasn’t worried at all about getting Tommy ready for bed, he was four years old now and Mark and Skylar both had their fair share of work events at night that left the other to care for Tommy alone. His bedtime routine was simple enough for either of them though, he could watch one show after dinner before getting ready for bed. Once they could no longer see Skylar’s car from the window Mark turned to his son to start the routine. 

“Alright Tommy, it’s just you and me tonight. Ready for some Curious George?” Tommy giggled and bolted to claim the best spot on the couch. Mark followed at a walk behind the four year old and sat down next to him. He turned the TV on and settled in, prepared for a quiet night with his son. 

As soon as the show started, however, Tommy seemed to have other plans. He tossed and turned on the couch as he watched his show. Eventually his lack of comfort overpowered his concentration on the show and he slid off the couch and started burrowing himself under the couch cushion. 

“What are you doing Tommy?” Mark watched his son curiously as he crawled around under the couch cushion. “Aren’t you watching your show?” 

Tommy replied by emerging from the couch, holding something he found above his head in victory. “I found it,” he cried sitting back down and looking more closely at the object in his hands. “Daddy what is it?” 

Mark took the object from his son’s hands and examined it closely. “I’m actually not sure, son. What do you think it is?” He handed the object back to let Tommy look at it too. 

“It has two handles, maybe it’s scissors.” He turned the object around and put one hand on each of the handles. He squeezed the two handles together and watched the other end to see if it could make a cut. “But it comes together at the top in a circle,” He traced his finger along the top part, realizing that they would not work as scissors. “Your turn, daddy.” 

Mark took the object and looked at it again. “Well if you don’t know what it is and I don’t know what it is, that means it must be mommy’s, right? So maybe mommy uses the scoop part to curl her hair. What do you think about that?” Mark gently ran the top circle through Tommy’s hair and pulled the two handles together. His hair slid over the circle but didn’t move when Mark pulled the handles together. 

 “Nothing happened, daddy that’s clearly not it.” Tommy took the object back and held it upside down again. “See there’s a spring in the middle.” He ran his little hand along the spring. “Maybe it makes things fly.” Tommy scuttled to the fridge and pulled a grape out of the bowl. He held it up so his dad could see and hurried back to the couch. He carefully set the grape inside the circle part and set it on the couch to pull the handles together. The grape moved slightly as some part of the circle moved underneath it, but the grape did not fall out. 

“That’s sad, I thought you figured it out.” Mark consoled his son and picked up the grape. “I give up, Tommy, I don’t know what it is. Do you just want to go back to watching Curious George? It’s almost bedtime anyway.”

“I want to stay up and find out what this is,” Tommy whined. He held the mysterious object close to his body and turned to sit facing his dad. “Can we please stay up for mommy and ask her when she comes back? Please?” Tommy’s lower lip quivered as he stuck it out and his eyes grew big and watery. 

“Well let’s watch just a little bit more Curious George and we’ll see what time it is, maybe you can see her before you fall asleep.” Mark repositioned Tommy on the couch and restarted the show. Tommy watched the show halfheartedly, more interested in fiddling with the mysterious object still in his hands. Mark watched his son’s fascination and smiled to himself, hoping that his wife will be home soon. 

Mark soon found himself dozing off as the show finished so he shook his head to keep himself awake. He looked over at his son to find that he was also asleep, still holding the mysterious object close to him. Mark chuckled, wiped the sleep from his eyes, and stood up. He scooped his son gently into his arms, trying not to wake him up. Just as he started climbing the stairs to bring him to his bedroom the front door opened and Skylar walked in. Tommy heard the door open and jumped awake. He scrambled out of Mark’s arms and ran sleepily towards his mom. 

“Mommy, what is this thing? We found it in the couch and we don’t know what it is.” Tommy held the item up for her to take it.

Skylar laughed as she took the item from Tommy’s hands. “This was in the couch? No wonder I couldn’t find it for so long.” She turned to look at Mark. “You didn’t know what this is either? I think you both need to do more baking with me, this is my cookie scoop.”

“You’re what? What’s a cookie scoop?” Tommy yawned and allowed Mark to pick him up again.

“When we have a batch of cookie dough I use this to scoop the same amount of dough into a perfect ball to bake into cookies.” She placed the cookie scoop in the sink and followed the boys up the stairs, still laughing that neither Mark nor Tommy knew what the object was. 

“Well I guess we figured out what our mysterious object was,” Mark whispered to his son as he tucked him into bed. 

“I think we should make cookies with it tomorrow after school,” Tommy yawned again and rolled over. Mark laughed and closed the door quietly, glad his son could fall asleep so fast now that he knew that it was a cookie scoop he found in the couch.