It was Sunday, February 23rd, 2020 and James and Lily were in James's room.

"Hey, Lily?" smiled James, "I have a challenge for you. I have five gumdrops. The challenge is for you to correctly guess all five flavors blindfolded. Do you think you can do that?"

"I know I can, " said Lily confidently.

"Then let's make this bet, " suggested James, "If you can go five for five on the flavor guesses, then you can decide how we spend the rest of this afternoon. But if you miss even one, then I get to decide how we spend the rest of this afternoon."

"I accept because I'm sure I will win, " said Lily confidently.

Next nanosecond, James retried a black blindfold from one of the drawers of his desk and then placed it over Lily's eyes. He then went to his stash of candy and chose five unique gumballs for Lily to taste test.

"Open your mouth, Lily, " instructed James.

She did, and James inserted a purple gumdrop into it.

"Grape, " said Lily with certainty as she chewed on the purple gumdrop.

"Good start, Lily, " said James briskly, "For grape it is."

"One down, four to go, " said Lily eagerly.

"This one could be trickier, but I think you'll get it, " piped up James as he popped a red gumdrop into Lily's mouth.

"Cherry, " said Lily without hesitation the nanosecond she had bitten into the red gumdrop, "I suppose some who are very insensitive to berry flavors might confuse cherry with raspberry."

"You're off to a good start, Lily, " said James encouragingly, "I'll give the easiest one next."

"Orange, " predicted Lily before James had even set the orange gumdrop in her mouth.

"Indeed, " confirmed James, "Orange is an almost impossible flavor to miss. But now for the last two. But I want to do these two somewhat differently and you'll understand why when it's done. I'm going to give you one gumdrop, then the last, and only after having had both do I want you to guess the two flavors."

James next fed Lily a green lime gumdrop and when she'd finished that he gave her the final gumdrop, a yellow lemon one.

"Well?" asked James when he saw Lily had fully swallowed the last one.

"Lime, then Lemon," guessed Lily, actually sounding a little more nervous now.

"BINGO!" shouted James proudly,

"Lime and Lemon are similar flavors, " mused Lily, "If you'd given me the lime one one at a time, it would have too obvious the last one was lemon. You were testing to see if I could distinguish between two similar flavors while blindfolded."

"You have a Ravenclaw side, Lily, " grinned James, "Lily, you won our bet, so, as promised, what we do this afternoon is your choice."

"Can I go get my hula hoop and have you hold it for me while I jump through it?" asked Lily hopefully, "I haven't hula hooped for ages."

"Of course, sweetie, " said James glowingly, "Whatever you want."

"I'll go retrieve my hula hoop from my room and meet you on the sloping lawn," explained Lily as she removed the blindfold.

"I'll be there, " said James brightly, putting the blindfold away.

So, James went down to the sloping lawn and met Lily as she brought out her hot pink hula hoop.

As he had promised, James held Lily's hula hoop for her so she could jump through it.

Lily just laughed all smiled and laughed with a broad smile on her face and her eyes glowing as she jumped back and forth through the hula hoop.

It was a pure kid moment. A child just having fun doing something she loved doing. James smiled too. It warmed his heart to see his favorite sibling so free, happy and blissful.

After awhile, James just said, "Lily, I love seeing you so blissful and having so much fun."

Lily just smiled back.

After awhile, Lily piped up, "Let's switch roles, you deserve to take a few jumps yourself after doing the holding work."

"I would like that, " smiled James.

So, they switched roles, and, just as Lily had, James smiled and laughed as he jumped back and forth through the hula hoop. Lily smiled at seeing James have this pure fun, just as James had smiled for Lily.

James couldn't jump as far Lily could but that was irreverent.

This was a pure moment of brother and sister having fun together and being happy to see each other happy.

They kept switching roles throughout the afternoon and by the time they had to put the hula hoop away for dinnertime, Lily said, "That was the most fun I've had in a long time. I just really enjoyed that. The afternoon of hula hooping was a really fun afternoon."

"I'm glad to hear that, Lily, " beamed James, "I had a great time too and you winning our bet actually worked out great for both of us."

"I wouldn't want to do it every day, " said Lily matter of factly, "But as aa once in a while activity, hula hooping is super fun."

"That was a very satisfying afternoon, " smiled James.

James and Lily exchanged grins and headed off to dinner.