Of Bananas and Balloons

For the Ice Cream Social (next Wednesday from 1-3 pm, if you're in the area of Our Daily Bread) we asked for, and got, a case of bananas donated. This means my first successful grant request at this job was paid out in bananas. (Those of you who know what I was paid the first time I was ever paid for a story will especially appreciate this. Those who don't know--it would take far too long to explain.) One case=40 pounds of bananas, enough for one hundred people. That's a lot of banana splits. We've also gotten free ice cream and money to buy syrups, nuts, whipped cream, maraschino cherries, etc. etc.
I love my job.
On Easter Monday my existentialist mentor gave the 'Bread sandwiches left over from her parish's post-Easter Vigil feast and some balloons that had decorated the tables. They were the standard helium balloons, the kind that deflate in a day, but after a week they were still holding up. All but one--one dropped to the floor.
There's this little boy who comes in the office every once in a while looking for Mary Beth, or, as he puts it, "maay BEHHH" (he's like three years old). Actually he calls all of us "maay BEHHH" but it's clear that it's the original maay BEHHH he's looking for. He came in one day last week. It took me a while to realize he was in the office because I could just barely see the top of his head bobbing along on the far side of my desk.
"maay BEHHH?"
"No," I told him. "She's not in right now. Shall we go look for her?"
"K."
So we wandered out into the main dining room.
"maay BEHHH?"
"I don't see her...oh, but look, want a balloon?"
I pulled out the one that had fallen and gave it to him. Then we played a quick game where I would kick it out of his hands and he'd chase after it. This made him squeal with glee. It was the first time I'd heard him really happy.
A couple of days after that we let one of our guests take the whole bunch of remaining balloons--which, yes, were still inflated. You couldn't see his face as he left, just all these pastel teardrop shapes bobbing their way out the door.