Too Cute

A quarter of a century spent sitting at a low, kidney-shaped table surrounded by 5 - 12 year-old children has left me with more than a few good stories: some sad, some funny, but all touching. Today's story was just too cute. It came at the end of an hour-long therapy session as I hurried four giggling hard-of-hearing fourth-graders to gather their book bags for the bus trip home. The smallest of the group lopped his mesh bag onto our work table. I watched bemusedly as a thick, creamy goo oozed a two-foot wide puddle across the table, some stray splotches plopping onto the carpet. It looked like sunscreen to me. As I stood there trying to figure out why this child was carrying sunscreen in his book bag and also why it had exploded, his mother-hen classmate solved the mystery. "I told you to eat your ice cream, not put it in your book bag!"

He calmly plucked the crushed Styrofoam cup out of the bag and threw it away. There went the anticipated snack for the ride home! If he was ruffled by his mistake, his dignified walk down the hall did not betray him.