Poppy and the Diamond Ring

For twenty minutes we battled a sentence about a turtle and a pond.

Then he managed it without help.

“Did you hear me?” he asked.

“I heard every word.”

His grin made me feel ten years younger.

Afterward, the volunteer coordinator asked whether I would like to return.

I said I would think about it.

That evening Poppy listened patiently while I described the turtle book and pretended not to know what happened next.