Blabbermouse
  • BLOG
  • READING
  • ARCHIVE 2005-2014
Follow me!

oh boy

12/5/2007

0 Comments

 
I shouldn't laugh.

Gus is lucky to be alive after last night's episode of "Only a Boy Would ..."

There are people who claim there's no inherent difference between boys and girls. Gender roles, they proclaim, are largely imposed on children by society. And yet as a girl, I (unlike Gus) never asked my brother if he wanted to smell my feet. The thought just never crossed my mind.

Last night, in an act of domestic posturing, I was standing at the kitchen counter chopping a red pepper for the salad when Gus shuffled in, eyes cast down at the floor.

"I did something naughty, but I didn't cry, and it doesn't hurt," he said.

"Okay, good. Do you want cranberries in your salad or separately?"

"It doesn't hurt," he said again. "I'm okay."

I looked down at him. And then at the small burn hole in his pajama top.

"What happened to your pajamas, Gus?"

"Oh this?" he said, sticking his finger through the hole. "This is nothing."

Technically true. And yet, I felt the absence of fabric worth looking into.

"How did it happen?"

"Well," he said, gesturing toward the bedroom. "There was some smoke and lights, but I didn't cry, and it doesn't hurt."

In the bedroom, we all gathered by Larry's side of the bed. A metal pin--the kind you use to inflate bicycle tires--lay melted and smoldering on the floor.

"I sticked it in the light," Gus confessed.

What I couldn't figure out is what made him decide to stick the pin in the socket where the light bulb should be. Or how he managed to set sparks flying and smoke smoking, ultimately blowing a circuit, burning a hole in his pajamas, scorching his chest, all without getting knocked unconscious or even, as he reminded me so many times, crying.

He swears he never got a shock, though he was so adamant about it (NO MOM! I did NOT get shocked!), I think he doth protest too much. 

The only thing I can figure is that he placed the pin in the socket and let go of it, taking it out only after the sparks flew and the circuit blew, and he knew he was going to be in serious trouble. Then, because the pin was hot, he might have jerked his hand back and burned the hole in his pajamas before throwing the pin on the floor.

This morning I was reminding Larry to tell Gus's teacher what had happened, lest she think I burned my child with the butt of a cigarette.

"No!" Gus screamed. "Don't tell Miss Barbara!"

"Why not?"

"I don't want her to worry."

"She won't worry, as long as we tell her what happened."

"No! Don't tell her. She will freak out."

Why?

Because that's what women do.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    yours. truly.

    Amanda O'Brien is the author and sole proprietress of Blabbermouse, a blog she launched in February of 2005.

    archives

    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008
    March 2008
    February 2008
    January 2008
    December 2007
    November 2007
    October 2007
    September 2007
    August 2007
    June 2007
    April 2007
    March 2007
    January 2007
    December 2006
    November 2006
    October 2006
    September 2006
    August 2006
    July 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    April 2006
    March 2006
    February 2006
    January 2006
    December 2005
    November 2005
    October 2005
    September 2005
    August 2005
    July 2005
    June 2005
    May 2005
    April 2005
    March 2005
    February 2005

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.