Time Warp Tuesday --- The Princess Spoke

When I first moved to Pittsburgh, I moved into an efficiency apartment in a complex located in the North Hills. I lived there for a year before Steve and I found a place to be roommates a little closer to the city. That first year I had a family from India living next door. I had only met the father a few times, but he was very intelligent and worked in some type of product development field and was on work trips more often than not. His wife stayed at home and rarely came out of their apartment. She did not speak English at all. They had 2 kids..."Guy" and "Princess". I don't remember what their real names were, but that is what they always told people to call them.

Guy was 9-years-old and Princess was three. Guy talked a mile-a-minute, but Princess never uttered a sound. She also had a blanket she carried with her everywhere. It was a bit long, so about 2 feet of it would always be dragging on the ground behind her as she walked. They would both knock on my door several times a day (sometimes together, sometimes just Guy, and sometimes just Princess). Guy would always want to go out and play catch, watch TV with me, etc. Princess (since she never talked) would just walk straight in (dragging that blanket behind her), hop up on my couch, and just lay there until either I would have to leave or Guy would come and get her.

As time went on, Guy and Princess would want to go with me wherever I went. If I said I was going to the mall, Guy would say, "Let me ask if we can go too"...and it didn't matter where I was going the mom would always say "Yes". I only had a truck back then so we would load in with Princess in the middle and guy in the passanger side (who knows how many laws I broke without a child-seat for Princess, but back then I thought they were only for newborns). So we would walk through the mall, grocery store, church, wherever with Guy talking his mile-a-minute, and Princess lagging a few feet behind dragging her blanket.

Must be a cultural thing, but this soon turned into, "Mom told us to come stay with you while she goes to the store" or "Mom said to leave Princess with you while she takes me to get my haircut". Not that I ever really minded as Guy was a great kid, and Princess was like watching a cat that just sits there and never makes a peep. About a month before I moved, Guy, Princess, and their family bought a house. As they loaded up the truck to move, they were both crying thinking they would never see me again.

Four years later as I was teaching at North Hills we had a Open House for the 7th-graders. Guy would now be in 7th grade and as I was walking down the hall that night I heard, "Mr. Mike, Mr. Mike!" and turned to see Princess (who I was used to seeing lagging behind everyone) now running ahead to give me a hug. The Princess had spoken! And although I didn't have Guy in class, he would come by my office to say hello and chat throughout the year.