Laughing Out Loud

I really like when something I see or hear makes me laugh out loud. It feels good, and takes you away from the ordinary bits of your life, just for a moment.

A good example was a Facebook video of a small child, not baby but not quite a toddler. She was laughing at her father, doing something as simple as ripping paper. She giggled away, more each time he tore the paper, until she couldn’t sit and fell to the side. There’s no sound quite so contagious as a child’s laughter.

There are many commercials on television that make you laugh, that give you that feel good feeling, you know, those Hallmark moments. But I love it when I’m reading a book and a scene makes me smile and laugh out loud.

I’m going to share this passage from Nora Robert’s book The Witness, because it made me laugh.

A quick synopsis for the scene. Brooks’ parents had to put down the dog they’d had for seventeen years. As much as they missed having a dog, the mother, Sunny, said she wasn’t ready to have another. The son determines that the mother feels disloyal at seeking out a replacement, but might take a dog in, if it was a gift. He shows up unannounced with a ten week old puppy.

“Oh.” Sunny actually put her hands behind her back. “Brooks, I told you. I’m not ready for_”........

.........“We ought to let him out, don’t you think?” Loren put an arm around Sunny’s shoulders. “At least take a look at him.”

“Some help you are. All right, let him out of there. It’s not right he has to be in a cage like a criminal.”

“That’s the thing.” Brooks set the crate down, opened the door and scooped out the bundle of wiggling, licking, yipping delight. “He’s about ten weeks old. If he doesn’t find a home in another month, say, it’s curtains. The green mile. Riding the lightening.”

Deliberately, Sunny folded her arms. “Stop.”

“Dead dog walking,” Brooks added as his mother sighed and his father struggled not to laugh. “What?” Brooks held the dog’s nose up to his ear. “You sure? Okay. He says he wants me to tell you ’Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen’,” Brooks sang in somber tones.

“Oh, give me that pup.”

There’s more, but to really enjoy the interplay between mother and son you need to read the book. I love how she struggles but can’t stay immune to the charm of a puppy, or her son when she calls him a brat and kisses his cheek.

The book is a mystery, with many levels, and to come upon this sudden lighthearted moment that made me laugh was a pleasure.