Natural Consequences

Sparky and I spent 8 hours in the Emergency Room yesterday (and into early this morning) getting an extraordinarily ugly gash in his leg stapled up. Actually, the stapling part only took about 10 minutes, the rest was spent waiting for the doctor, the nurse, the x-ray technician, etc. Always good to have an opportunity to practice patience.

Here's what happened:

Sparky asked to go to his friend's house and beat me to my first question by telling me that his friend's mom was home. Since the boys have very limited neighborhood privileges right now, I told him he could go for 45 minutes. I also told him not to go anywhere else. "I won't," he said. Yeah, right.

An hour later, Drama boy called my cell phone crying and saying that Sparky had fallen and cut his leg open. When I asked where they were, he couldn't tell me, wasn't really sure but gave some directions I couldn't understand. Finally, he said, "They'll just take us," and hung up. Who? Where? Yikes.

I found them in the back of some strangers truck with their friend and some teenage boy I've told them to stay away from, no shoes, smelling like a sewer, a dirty towel wrapped around Sparky's leg . Apparently, they were playing near a deep storm drain full of green, slimey water and their "friend" told Sparky to push Drama Boy in. Drama Boy, tired of being called weak by this kid, decided he was going to prove something so he pushed Sparky instead.

So, now Sparky has staples in his leg and lots of pain and Drama Boy has lots of guilt. They told me that they learned their lesson and they are never going to play there again. Not exactly the most critical lesson here but I guess it's a start.

More about our emergency room fun later.