Her mother told her lovingly but firmly, No, you don’t put a marble in your mouth. Here, you put it on this and watch it roll down.

It was a child’s assemble-it-yourself marble maze. The host had had it all ready for her.

We were at a friend’s for dinner, and the young mom got distracted by the conversation because the dinner was for her. I got down on the floor and took a turn with her baby, who was old enough to run but too young to talk.

We rolled that marble down those chutes.

The rest of them had gone into a covered tin labeled Marbles.

She shook it at me, her eyes questioning, but I did not open it for her. Her mother had narrowed it to just the one and I wasn’t about to mess with that.

RollrollrollPLUNK!

She picked it up from the bottom piece and looked at me with big eyes and…moved that marble slowly up in front of her mouth. Testing whether the rules applied across multiple grownups and when Mom wasn’t looking.

I shook my head no.

Oh. They do. Okay then.

She put it back on the (oh what’s the name of that toy) and let it take its path and never tried to eat it again.