Besides Jeff and his mom, there were only two people in the playground - an older kid with blonde locks on the slides, maybe three or four years old, wearing a green coat and blue mudpants, and their mom, tall and very pregnant, her belly in a beige sweater poking out through her open winter coat. Jeff didn't recognize the big boy - he had never really had friends more than one year older than himself. But their mothers apparently knew each other and Mommy immediately took Jeff's hand and led him towards the other mom.
"Hi Maureen, hello Tony!" she called out. Jeff started to remember as Maureen greeted them back. Tony was the older brother of his classmate Alyssa. Alyssa was a smart, nerdy girl who had skipped second grade and ended up in Jeff's class in elementary school. So the baby in Maureen's belly had to be her. For some reason, Jeff had always been a bit afraid of her big brother, even though he wasn't a bully at school and he couldn't remember Tony ever doing anything to him or someone else. Maureen squatted down in front of Jeff. "Hi Jeffy, how are you?" she asked. Jeff didn't really know how to react in an age-appropriate way. Part of him wanted to touch her belly and say "Hi baby", but that would probably have seemed weird. So he moved one step closer to Mommy and grabbed her leg. "Don't you remember Maureen, Jeff?" Mommy asked. "He just got up from his nap.", she explained to Maureen. Both moms sat down on the bench and started talking about Maureen's pregnancy – apparently she was in the „any day now“ stage – and their experiences with the local hospital's maternity ward.
For a moment, Jeff wondered what it was like to be born and if Alyssa could hear the conversation in the womb, but soon he got bored by the mom talk.
Jeff decided to go explore the playground. He saw red, yellow and brown leaves from the nearby trees all over the ground. He squatted down to pick up a big, brown chestnut leaf, amazed at how huge it was compared to his hands. He sniffed on it - it didn't smell like much - and he resisted the urge to taste it. He may be a toddler, but he wouldn't eat rotting leaves. Thinking about eating, he remembered the cookies in his mom's purse. He ran the few steps to the bench and dropped his leaf in her lap. "Oh, you found a really big leaf! That's beautiful! Thank you!" she said. Her performance would have convinced most kids Jeff's age, but he suspected she might not actually be that thrilled about a wet leaf leaving damp spots on her pants. "Cookie?" he asked pointing at her purse. "Wow, you actually remember the cookies? Okay, you can have one now." Mommy picked up her purse and took a small round cookie from the crinkling package. She handed it to Jeff and he took a close look at the brown chocolate dough in anticipation before stuffing it into his mouth. He enjoyed the taste and the texture changing from crunchy to mushy as he chewed on it, but much too soon he had swallowed it all. "More!" he demanded. "Not yet, you can have another cookie later." mommy said.
Jeff decided it was time to try out the swing. He started to walk towards it and was almost there when suddenly there was a THUD and he found himself lying on the ground with Tony's legs on top of him. For a moment he heard Tony laughing, then the whole world disappeared behind a wall of pain and shock. "WAAAAAAHHH!" Jeff cried at the top of his lungs, tears running down his face. He felt Mommy picking him up, looking at his head, wiping away some dirt and then starting to blow the pain away. First it didn't work, his head, his side and his arm still hurt so much he kept crying, but when mommy held him closely and bounced him slightly it slowly started to fade away. A pacifier was placed in his wide open mouth and he automatically started sucking on it. His sobs turned into sniffles. Mommy wiped his tears away and helped him blow his nose, and he realized he was now sitting in her lap. In front of him, Maureen was squatting in front of Tony, holding him by his arm. "You can't just tackle people!" she said sternly. "But I was a buffalo!" Tony replied. "Even if you were playing buffalo, Jeff wasn't playing with you. And you can't play rough with babies! They can get hurt really bad, look how much he cried!" Maureen explained. Tony seemed to be torn between remorse and defending himself. Then he stood in front of Jeff and quietly said „Sorry.“ Jeff didn‘t really feel like forgiving the big boy, but at least he felt safe in Mommy‘s lap, and the paci in his mouth prevented him from saying anything.