Pineapple on Canvas: The Odd Adventures of a Toy in the City

The one about the Tattoo

"Ella?" Papple asked. "Can Papple ask you something?"

"Yes, baby? What is it?"

Papple had left Room and had come to Couch Room and scrambled up the step stool by the couch to sit beside Ella, where she was working remotely on her laptop.

"You know what this say?" he asked, a sheepish grin crossing his face and the permanent pink cheeks stitched across his face glowing even brighter.

"The markings across your stomach?"

"Yes, these are Papple tattoo. You know what it say?" he asked, nervously rubbing his round orange feet together.

"What does it say?" Ella asked, even though she could perfectly well read the "I heart Maui" blasted across his small round yellow body.

For the love of God, Papple could not understand why he said what he was about to say, because he knew very much that it was a lie. "It say I heart Ella."

Ella frowned and looked down at the little creature, who in turn was looking down at his tummy.

"You know what Papple?"

"What, Ella?" he asked, afraid she would call him out on his lie. He couldn't remember why he had decided to get that garish, and now embarrassing, etching on his belly.

"It actually says, 'I heart Maui'."

"Oh," he replied, rather downtrodden.

"But you should be proud of that. Do you know why?"

"No," he whispered.

"Because if it didn't, than Maher would never have chosen you and then I wouldn't have my little pineapple of amour, now would I?"

The thought cheered him up greatly, and he perked up. The formerly limp leaves stood up with pride and he puffed out his chest.

"You, know what else?" Ella asked.

"What?" Papple replied.

"It may say 'I heart Maui,' but you and I both know that it really means, I heart Ella, because you're my little golden pineapple!"

Papple smiled back, a confused look on his face. "But how that be?"

For what felt like the first time since she started at the firm, Ella was happy to be able to apply her legal training to good use. "Well, because, just like in any legal document, the parties to it can agree to anything. For example did you know that we could define the word "cat" to mean "dog" and vice versa?"

"Okay," Papple said, then shook his leaves in confusion. "Me no understand how this can mean 'I heart Ella'."

"Well, you and I can both agree and understand that Maui, when on your cute little belly really means Ella, and Ella is me," she replied. "So that stitching means 'you heart Ella'!"

Papple brightened up and his heart pounded with joy.

"Papple go make Ella coffee, okay? he asked.

"That would be perfect," Ella replied, as she turned back to her computer screen, ready to tackle another document. As she was about to do it, cheered by her interaction with Papple, she decided instead to take a break and do something she had been meaning to do for weeks. She opened a new private window in Mozilla Firefox and typed in "Mentor application for girls."