Written in Water

Even a minor event in the life of a child is an event of that child's world and thus a world event.
-- Gaston Bachelard

Wednesday, June 4, 1997

Today I helped my sister with her kids. My brother-in-law is out of town, so I took off work to care for my younger nephew B----. The older boy J--- is still in school, but B--- is only four. The regular childcare arrangements developed a glitch, so I said I'd help.

I decided to take B--- with me to work for a short visit, so I could take care of anything that was super hot or urgent. I set him up with Muppet web pages, while I went through email and the bugs assigned to me. I probably got one hour of work done in the two hours we were there, which was doing very well, and he was well-behaved.

Lunch at the cafeteria: I should never have allowed the chocolate milk, but B--- did eat a few bites of his cheeseburger and munched the vegetable sticks.

Driving home, I decided we should stop off and take a nature walk on a path that goes through a wetland area near the Museum of History and Industry, in the Montlake area. We were walking along, me telling B--- not to walk on the edge of the path. The path is shredded bark, edged with boards. He took one more step, and plop! HE WAS IN THE WATER! I grabbed his arm and hauled him back before he sank totally under, and the water was probably about two feet deep right there, but what terror! He was completely soaked, and cried for a few minutes as we made our way back to the car. We stopped a few times along the way to dump the water from his red rubber boots, and he was laughing by the time we got to the parking lot.

At the house I gave him a bath and clean clothes. In a little while it was time to pick up his brother and another boy from kindergarten. My sister returned and I told her what happened. She wasn't angry, but I still felt guilty, like I had been derelict in my duty!

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