When Elayna met Neil Gaiman

[shadesong]

Tropicon is a very, very small sf convention, held each November in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. In 1998, just after "Stardust" came out, they had the absurd good luck to manage to get Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess as the author and artist guests of honor, respectively. And, amazingly... they did not publicize this fact.

The first day of the two-day con, I got my parents to babysit Elayna, who was then 3 1/2 years old, so I'd at least have one day to get things signed, meet Neil and Charles (if you've ever met them, you know they're not Mr. Gaiman and Mr. Vess. They're Neil and Charles.), et cetera. And I did, and it was great. :)

The second day, my parents couldn't watch her. Unfortunately, that was the day Neil was doing a reading, which I really did not want to miss. So I roped stronae, who at that point didn't really know or care who Neil was, into going with me... so that, if Elayna wouldn't sit still or stay quiet during the reading, he could take her outside.

I wheeled her into the room, and everyone there *glared* at me - chick with a toddler, don't you know, and oh, the kid's gonna scream through the whole thing and ruin everything... but I trusted Elayna. And as Neil entered the room, I pointed to him and told her that that nice man was going to read us some of his stories, and it was very important for us to be polite and quiet for him, and that if she needed a snack or a juicebox, she should just tap my thigh and whisper what she needed. She agreed.

So Neil started to read. He started off with "Chivalry". I don't remember what he followed with. Elayna was silent...absorbed in her board books or in quietly munching Cheerios. And, gradually, everyone just forgot she was there.

Including me, to some degree.

Including Neil.

As the hour wound down, he decided he had time for just one more story, a very short one... and settled on "Babycakes". "Babycakes" is a what-if story... what if all of the animals in the world just disappeared? Would we change our leather-wearing, carnivorous lifestyle? No. We would go to the next best thing - babies. Yes. Wearing and eating.

This is the point at which Elayna starts to get fidgety. Not registering that she was actually listening to Neil, I just patted her and whispered, "Almost over, sweetie, thank you for being so good." She whimpered quietly and continued to fidget, and the fidgeting grew more and more pronounced until, with Neil on the second to last paragraph, she braced her feet on the footrest of the stroller, levered herself up, and yelled at the top of her considerable vocal range, "I DON'T WANNA BE HERE ANYMORE!!!"

Everyone in the room broke out laughing, even Neil. It took a few minutes for him to compose himself enough to struggle through that last paragraph, at which point he slammed the book closed and leaned forward toward Elayna, arms out in supplication, saying, "I didn't mean you!"

(Epilogue: She didn't hold a grudge. She spoke to him happily at the signing table, and her copy of "The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish" has a sketch and "Dear Elayna, Best fishes! -Neil Gaiman".)

Comments

[amberfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Elayna! Poor Neil! *giggle* That is so sweet, though.

[childofchaos.livejournal.com]

LOL That is so cute!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/]

Highly amusing little anecdote. Very cool :)

[snowelf.livejournal.com]

Wow. Elayna's one amazing kid. What a cute story. Brought a big smile to my face.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*LOL!* That goes in the memories file... :)

[entropic-om.livejournal.com]

What an adorable story! :)

[root-down.livejournal.com]

The other 15% is stories about your kid, I think.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I'd been wondering. :)

[blueingenue.livejournal.com]

Very cute story. Easy to envision why Elayna got so fidgety over "Babycakes" because I have that collection of stories (Angels and Visitations).

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

::giggle:: Love hearing Elayna stories :)

[azurelunatic]

Awww!

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

This has me tempted to actually start reading Neil Gaiman....

[cabell.livejournal.com]

*lol*

(lizardling pointed me over here)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Cool. :) Elayna will never live this down. I swear I'm going to tell this story at her eventual wedding...

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

Too cool a story!

Aww...

[harpseal.livejournal.com]

I be they would love that story over at neil_gaiman or even toriamos

Your daughter sounds cute :)

[owlrigh.livejournal.com]

You're right, I did appreciate this. Poor little Elayna, desperately trying to keep quiet and being uncomfortable. Not exactly a story for children, "Babycakes". I admire her fortitude! So cute.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

She's generally an excellent kid!

[fiannaharpar.livejournal.com]

That is an *awesome* story :-)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

She's an awesome kid. These things happen with her. Crazy.

[utforsker.livejournal.com]

soooooooooooooooooooo adorable!