The Scolding

She looked at me. I looked at her. And then she started. Oh, it went on and on. She gesticulated. She frowned. She pointed one finger and then four. What she said was a blur but it went something like this, ‘pa-pa-poo-poo’, in perfectly ordered sentences with well-timed pauses, her voice rising and falling as she made her point. Of course, I had to reply in kind. Both of us going at it in perfect seriousness. One, a 32-year-old who was having the time of her life and the other her darling niece, aged one year and two months J