Wonder Boy

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• October 29, 2024

My Mom or Mimi, as she is called by her three grand-kids, gets a call from Blaise. Her youngest grandchild at three years old, my brother’s son.
“Mimi!” he exclaims in his oh so cute cartoonish kid voice, “I have to come over and fix your flat tire! Do you have the tools? Do you have a pump?”

Mimi is always excited to get a call from any of the three grandkids. The kids adore Mimi and Pappy so much. They’re bigger than celebrities to them.

“We don’t have a flat tire. Also, you’re in New York and we’re in Florida. But we’ll see you soon!” My mom assures an adamant young Blaise. My Dad, or Pappy, is outside, choring. FaceTime is one of the modern miracles of technology as it gives the gift of not just hearing the earnest in each other’s voice, but the happiness in their eyes as they connect. My brother tells Mom that Blaise was suddenly insistent that they needed to call Mimi and Pappy about fixing a tire. They laughed together at his cuteness.

Blaise is a mechanical little boy. He is obsessed with trains. He likes to study how things work. His favorite show is “Popular Mechanics for Kids,” a 90s Canadian educational TV show. His curiosity on how things are made is as wondrous as his ability to understand things that should be over his little blond head. He’s not the type of kid you can make false promises to. For he seems to remember everything, and he’ll hold you to it, reciting your own dialogue back to you.

Blaise insisted, “I have to fix your flat tire!” He’s the only human I know who is excited about the idea of a flat tire. Flat tires are day ruiners, any adult would know. But this was an opportunity for him to be the hero to his beloved Mimi and Pappy. Labor entices the boy. God bless him.

After the phone call, my dad returns to the house from choring outside and my Mom tells him that Blaise called, exclaiming they had a flat tire that he needed to fix. Which in itself is adorable beyond comprehension. My dad, then, furrows his brow… “that’s weird,” he says, “because my
hand truck just got a flat tire and I have to fix it.”

So. Without any communication with each other, and over a thousand miles between them, did Blaise actually know that Pappy was going to have a flat tire and needed a pump to fix it? The boy amazes us in ways unimaginable.

Young kids often say some far out stuff. In fact, one of my cousin’s daughters once told her about a “previous mother” when she was young that she no longer has a memory of. There’s an episode on the Netflix series “Surviving Death” about kids who recollect past lives, and it’s pretty mind blowing.

The child’s mind is not just like a sponge, absorbing everything, but this network of pure creation and peripheral energy. In fact, Blaise’s mom was not surprised by the happening stating other examples of lost and found toys that were plainly bizarre. Kids are unique from adults in the sense that they are truly living in the present. Adults are awful at present living, lest we work at it a little. Because of this, I think children can be fine tuned to something ether in the universe. But did my nephew have some sort of clairvoyant moment with the tire? Or was it a cosmic coincidence? Like a host of a supernatural TV show, I will leave the conclusion to the reader.

All I know for sure is I love being his aunt. He’s so sweet, funny, resourceful and something special. And when he looks at you with those clear blue eyes, he just grabs you into the present with him. He is and always will be, our wonder boy.