What's In A Name?

I was asking the Bean about his new friends at camp and he brought up a girl. There was a certain twinkle in his eye that I had never before seen when he talked about her. He liked her voice. It was funny in a good way, he said.

“So what’s her name?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” 

He had only been going to camp for about a week. So the next morning I issued him a challenge.

“Today, buddy boy, your goal is to find out that girl’s name,” I instructed.

“Okay, Daddy!”

That day he didn’t get the girl’s name. In fact, the whole next week he didn’t get the girl’s name. He still referred to her as the girl with the funny voice.

“But what do you call her? If her back was turned to you and you wanted to get her attention, what would you say?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Would you pull her hair or poke her in the back?”

“Daddy, I would never do such mean things to her!”

I pretty much dropped it after that.

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As I came home from work WonderWife™ told me, “You’ll never guess what happened at camp today. You have to talk to the Bean.”

The Bean had excitedly wandered over, like a puppy who wants to play.

“So…?” I said to him.

“I did it,” he said. “I asked her, ‘What’s your name?’”

“…and?”

“And she said, ‘Oh, you know!’ so I said, ‘I don’t’ and she said, ‘Guess.’ I told her I didn’t know so I gave up.”

He waited a beat and said, “So it’s her fault!”

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Today was the last day of camp. The Bean raced over to me as soon as I walked through the door.

“I know it! I know it!” he screamed.

“Well…what is it?”

“Um…” He stood on his toes to whisper into WonderWife’s™ ear.

“You already forgot it?” I said.

After a beat it came to him. “It’s Eliza!” He said beaming proudly.