I Would Take You Anywhere, Even Oxnard

I just talked to my daughter about this, and she remembers it differently, and I may even risk annoying or embarrassing her, but I wanted to share this story with you anyway, because I know its essence is true, and because it is, more than anything else, about how much I loved that girl and love her still.

She was about six or seven when this happened, a skinny little ranch kid with long brown hair in need of brushing, dirt under the fingernails, really into horses and dogs and wandering around making up stories in which she played all the characters and we would hear her talking to herself as she climbed on the rocks behind the house. (Oh, it makes me sigh, remembering those days!)

Anyway, one hot summer day while Monte was out of town, I had this idea that she and I could have a special outing together, and I told her that we could go anyplace she wanted within a few hours' drive, anyplace at all, within reason, her choice.

"I'll be your magic carpet," I said. "We'll have our own adventure together. It's entirely up to you!"

I even gave her a map to help her ponder possibilities.

Well, it turns out she didn't need any pondering time, because she already had a fantasy in place:

"Mom," she said, "I've always wanted to go to Oxnard."

Oxnard? No offense to Oxnard, but this left me somewhere between speechless and trying not to laugh. Not at all what I was expecting. (In fact, she told me this morning that she remembers me suggesting Cambria, a town I probably thought had more charm, although I can see in retrospect what old-lady sensibilities that implies.)

Well, it turns out that she wanted to go to Oxnard because she had heard about a place there called PetSmart, and although in reality it was just a chain store in an ugly strip mall off the freeway, some catalog or radio ad had given her the impression that it was acres and acres of everything you could possibly want for your horse and your dog, filled with kind-hearted animal lovers who would understand all your hopes and needs, and maybe pets for petting too.

In my daughter's mind, Oxnard was the ultimate destination, and I had promised, so of course that's where we went.

But you know? It made me love her even more...that kind of love where your heart is so full your chest might burst and you would do anything to protect her from hurt, anything at all.

Because she chose... Oxnard...and she saw PetSmart through a child's eyes and didn't act disappointed.

And now she lives in Oxford, another place she'd dreamed of, and last I heard she was still enchanted.