Adventures with Autaugies

We spent a good portion of today over at Nate's parents' house, along with various other members of the family, including our niece and nephew (who for stalker's sake shall be called Quail and Toad, respectively). Quail is about four-and-a-half, and exceptionally bright for her age. No, this is not the doting aunt in me (not more than can be expected, anyway); she is the kind of smart that messes up my expectations to the point where, when I am around other children her age, I cannot help but wonder why they are so dumb- and then I remember they're not dumb, per se, they're just closer to the average than she is.

But I digress.

Quail, Toad, and I were out in the backyard when Quail announces, "We're in the jungle!" and insists that it's very scary and we'd better hide, dragging me over to a large oak in the center of the yard. For a brief moment the adult in me is all befuddled, unsure of how one "plays pretend"- but then suddenly a rusty gear breaks free, and I remember.

"What's out there?" I cry, hunkering down with her, letting her be the leader and protector, as all big sisters crave to be.

"Snakes! And bugs! And bears! And most scary of all- autaugies!"

So we decided we'd better build a house to shelter in, and things went from there, the two-and-a-half year old Toad becoming our "magical talking puppy", and gamely running and shrieking with us every time we were beset by the terrible autaugies (which, as the game progressed, turned out to be a lot of tiny, really mean dragons who would attack us even if we tried to be nice to them, which will teach me to try to teach diplomacy to a four-and-a-half year old). Quail and I finally teamed up to fight them with Quail's magical sparkling shoes- which consisted of me hooking my arms under hers and swinging her in a circle so she could kick all the creatures that had us surrounded.

It was such brilliant fun!

I'd forgotten how much I love playing pretend (I think that's really what I'm craving when I get all sulky for someone to do table-top role-playing with). It was so liberating to let my imagination run free, to immerse myself in the magical world Quail had crafted, remembering my own childhood standards (such as ushering them into the double-bench-swing, because it's a magic flying chariot we can use to escape) and inventing new ones on the spot (I got tired and told them the autaugies had sapped all my energy, so they had to go on a quest to find the flower that would make me better- and after they brought it back to me I played for more time by telling them they needed to brew it into a special tea...)

I think it's probably a really good idea for anyone who wants to write genre fiction to spend at least one day a month playing with a couple of little kids- my imagination certainly feels sharpened.