The dolphins were the fastest way across Carmel Lake. Why that’s a thing, I’ll never know. I don’t really know how anything makes sense in ZipZopBoop Land. I get that dolphins can swim (duh), but how they can navigate with such finesse through something as thick as caramel is the thing that confuses the daylights out of me.

Kimmy says. “They just do Daddy. Dolphins would be the fastest swimmers _anywhere_.”

I can _hear_ the italics in her voice with anywhere. It comes with narrowed eyes, a trait passed on by her mother. Eight years old and already frustrated with her old man, maybe even a little embarrassed.

“But what about my pants? They’re going to get all sticky…and I don’t even want to think about my shoes. It’s going to take me _forever _to walk to my office.”

I wonder if Kimmy can hear the italics in forever. She says it’s not her problem, but it’s in the tone of an annoyed child. I could pry a little more…but I decide not too.

“So, are you excited to see where I work? You get to see Brenda. You like Brenda.”

She likes Brenda. I think. The last time Brenda came over, she did magic tricks. Kimmy thought it was the funniest thing on the planet. Laughing like a hyena on cocaine*.

* You think I’m being dramatic with the whole hyena thing. But I’m not. Believe me, that’s the kind of thing you have to see to believe.

“I like Brenda,” said Kimmy through a snicker. Her hand tightened around mine when she said that. “How does Brenda get to work?”

I tilted my head upward. “Well she takes Rainbow Route…and she uses the flying squirrels.”

“I LOVE the flying squirrels!!!”

“I’m aware. You have drawings all over your bedroom…and throughout the hallways. And ALL over our refrigerator.”

“It’s because they’re fun to draw Daddy.”

I figured as much. But I have no idea how drawing flying squirrels is better than dolphins in caramel, elephants through a chocolate subway, or giraffes that can jump on clouds.

There isn’t much you _can_ know with the frantic mind of an eight year old. And getting stuck in her crazy little fantasy world…that’s just something else.

But…

Leave it up to a comet to do something truly outlandish, and bizzare like that. This is where I live now. In the mind of a crazy little eight year old.

Wish me luck on my first commute.