I can still hear the songs coming from the cassette player and my daughter’s young voice singing along.  Sebastian is singing, “Under the Sea” and the Barney kids are singing, “Alligator Pie.”  The bathtub is in direct line of view from my kitchen.  I watch her play as I prepare dinner, waiting for my husband to come home from work.  I can hear her talking to her rubber ducky and I see that she has been spraying colorful crazy foam all over the tub.  With an imagination like hers, she could play alone in that bathtub for hours if I’d let her.  But there was one sure way to get her out when bath-time was over.  I’d just have to say, “Look at your fingers, they are turning into raisins!”  She’d giggle and say, “Raisin Fingers!” as she pushed her fingers into my face trying to scare me with them.  Time to come out.   I’d wrap her tiny wet body in a big fluffy towel and gently comb out her long hair.   So precious of a memory from so very long ago.

Theresa Dodaro is the author of The Tin Box Trilogy.  http://www.theresadodaro.com