Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for July 04, 2020

those people, Petey, are your family… deal with it

Honestly, Alice, you could show a little enthusiasm.

Who’s he asking, Alice? Little Neuro, or whatever his name is?

That was pretty restrained of Petey not to put “accidentally” in air quotes.

And what of the other brother(s)? (Do we know how many brothers Dill has?)

What do her parents have against this? It’s just a parade, its not like it will be going fast, plus, It’s most likely gonna go down a major street. No cliffs there.

Poor Petey; his hermit cell has been invaded.

If her parents nix this parade thing I’d hate to be anywhere near her.

Very funny, as always. Run ’em out, Petey.

Now he’s quoting Frank Sinatra in his Vegas act. Just get Gilly to kick the bums out.

I wish I had my own room. All I have is a corner of the garage and I have to share that with the Christmas ornaments.

Helicopter parents to the rescue. Total buzz kill.

I’m in.

It won’t be a cliff, just a Cliff Bar (dropped by a hungry tuba player in the marching band who was trying to sneak in a snack between oompahs).

Alice is not exactly in a Talking Mood, Madeline. Give her a calmative, and maybe then in an hour or so you and Peter can speak to her about the danger of Dill’s brothers in particular and shopping carts in general.

And of course hold this discussion in someplace other than Petey’s sacredly private bedroom!

It’s a hard lesson to learn, sometimes, but small children don’t see the world through our eyes. Part of the late (and lamented) Mr Thompson’s genius was his uncanny ability to see the world through Alice’s eyes, yes and even Petey’s.

I don’t see the problem here. I mean, Alice can do her dance routine on top of the carts. It’ll be the star of the show.