Elaine Abery - Jump

He smiles at us and follows us to the car.

‘Can we drive past and pick up the kids?’

He stands there and looks at the back seat, as though it were something he had never seen before, looking at us, then the seat.

Laughter echoes around us as Adam lifts him into the car.

‘Can we drive past and pick up the kids? They are super excited and want to meet him,’ comes from the back seat.

After some negotiations of who will sit where, the kids jump in the car. It’s hard to work out who is more excited.

‘Ooh. He’s licking my ear!’ comes the delighted squeal.

There is a lot of movement in the back seat. I try to keep my eyes on the road.

We have arrived.

We show him the way, into the house.

He alternates between running from room to room, sniffing things, and running back to the kitchen, looking at us expectantly.

‘Do you think he’s waiting for something?’

‘Let’s get the peanut butter mat! See if he likes that!’

We smear peanut butter on the mat and put it on the floor. He pauses in his running between us to sniff the peanut butter, before continuing to run between us. The peanut butter becomes another “station” in his exploration journey. He runs up the corridor to explore a room and runs back to give the peanut butter a precursory lick.

‘Maybe he doesn’t like peanut butter?’

‘Maybe he’s too busy exploring and wants to be able to see around him while eating the peanut butter?’

‘I’ll try putting the peanut butter mat on the fridge!’

We all laugh as he attacks the peanut butter mat, while keeping an eye on all of us.

‘Let’s take him outside! Show him the yard.’

We file out the back door. He stands at the door, looking at us and resolutely refuses to move.

‘I’ll grab the peanut butter mat.’

Slowly, we manage to coax him outside, to our great relief.

He bounds back inside after giving the – now nearly empty – peanut butter mat another lick.

We pile back inside and settle down on the couch to watch some TV. He looks at us expectantly.

‘He doesn’t know where to go. Make space for him!’

We slide along. He jumps onto the couch and lies across our laps, face upwards looking at her.