So, Jon is his class VIP all week, which gives him great power and prestige.
For one, he can bring things from home to give a picture of his off-school life.
So he brought Sam, his rabbit.
Sam, you’ll recall , is one result of our place turning into a sort of funny farm. He’s the pet with ears now nine times as long as normal because of all the carrying around from Jon and other children of unknown origins who have appeared around our place.
Jon would bring his vegetable garden if he could. Even in Canada, he’s recognized as a master of this sort of thing. When his class needed a summer home for the tomato plants they grew last spring, Jon was given the nod and given them all.
This morning, before the bell even rang, Jon’s classmates, who are Ugandans and expatriate kids from around the world, had crowded around him and Sam and began making offers.
If you give me Sam, I’ll give you my grandmother’s pearl necklace, Well, I’ll give you my father’s truck, Well, I’ll give you my sister — That sort of thing.
But Jon held his own, played it cool, showed how to wait in such games of trading up.
It looks to me like he was even thinking about it last night already. When I tucked him bed, in all the honesty and earnestness that only a little boy can have, he asked me … Daddy, can we get a pet lion?