You knew it was coming. The day your son would run to his trusty steed on his quest to save little Sophia from the peanut-laden granola bar she was so flippantly about to shove down her delicate little throat. He knew all too well of the complications she would face if she took that fateful bite. Her face would redden, throat tighten, eyes wide with shock, a deep sleep would follow and nothing could save her. Especially not his twenty teethed mouth because his six year old molars had yet to sprout. He wasn’t yet a man. Definitely not the man of her dreams.
Then, Olivia and Oliver went into the backyard unsupervised on a scorching 90 degree Summer day, straight up that hill to the water hose to get a drink of water. The parasites! You had yet to filter the water from the hose. They had to be stopped. Throwing open the back door yelling as loud as humanly possible, “Noooooo…” Oli and Oli whirled around frightened. They stumbled, tumbled, a rock in the grass, a scratch, some light blood streaming down O’s temple. Prep the emergency room, you’re on your way.
When Liam started hanging around this new kid at school, you knew it was trouble. The “Powerfully Unique Fitness Freaks” they called themselves. Liam wouldn’t come home right after school anymore. They sat underneath the bleachers where the water from the lockers rooms would spill out in a slow, but steady stream. Catching their breath from practice. It was just before Thanksgiving. The Autumn mist would still be on the concrete in the mornings. He looked so bright eyed when you dropped him off. When he wandered in just before dinner he told stories of imagining pirates as the punching bag when he and the other P.U.F.F.’s would practice sparing in the weight room. His eyes red and tired. He never talked about college.
Ava skipped the field trip to the zoo. She was “too sick” to go to school that day. She spent hours on the zoo website looking at all of the exhibits, getting excited, pointing out her favorites, and then it happened … she found the Spider Archives: Brazilian Salmon Pin Birdeater (big enough to eat birds?), Red-Kneed Tarantula (she thought those were just on movies), Florida Orb Web Spider (there goes Summer vacation to Disney World), Brown Recluse Spider (it’s so reclusive she won’t even know where it’s hiding). There she is on the couch watching Austin & Ally, eating her cinnamon oatmeal, looking less than sick, maybe a little frightened.
This is the world we live in. Where stories are read and life imitates art. Tragic, really.
