Motor-mouth

One of my nephews came home to visit this weekend. Well, really, to say goodbye. He's leaving Wednesday for a backpacking trip. He quit his job and is spending two to three months bumming around South America. He plans on staying at Hostels or in homes, if invited, and seeing that part of the world. I wish I had had the chance to do something like that, but the pressures of need (need food, need a car, need a roof over my head) far outweighed my desire for adventure. I commend him for his decision and am thrilled he's getting this opportunity.

He spent a good bit of time with my parents. We made plans to go out to dinner Saturday night as a family. Then Grandma told the children that he and his girlfriend were coming over around 2:00 Saturday afternoon to play cards. The children begged permission to join them. I called Grandma to check and see if it was okay, then sent them through the backyards.

I was doing some work later on the computer when Daelyn returned, red-faced and out of breath. He had run home in the heat from Grandma's house. He dropped at my feet for a short rest, then began talking. He finally paused, thought for a minute or two, then blurted out, "Grandma's so old she's almost dead."

I stifled a laugh. Pretending shock, I raised my voice, "Son! How could you say such a thing. She is getting older but she has a lot of life still left in her."

He continued. "Well, if she's gonna die anyway, let's just get it over with."

He should have stopped before he dug his hole deeper. This time, not needing to feign shock, I looked at him over the top of my glasses. I took a long breath myself before jumping into this one.

"Do you have any idea what that means?"

"No. It just sounded good."

"Then absolutely DON'T say it. Never say anything unless you understand what it means, son."

"What DOES it mean, then?"

"It means you want your Grandma to hurry up and die."

For the first time, possibly ever, he was stumped. The reality of his own words sunk in and as the thought of life without Grandma finally became clear, his eyes got big around and his mouth dropped open - - silently open. He was amazingly quiet for several minutes, then decided he wanted to go back to Grandma's house. He gently told me he was returning and took off out the door.

Life without Grandma will happen at some point in the future. It's not something we look for or even dare to think about. My little one had blundered into something that he probably heard on Gunsmoke or Magnum PI and repeated at the first opportunity. But even he realized it was a blunder.

There was nothing more said about this subject. Later, I repeated the first part of it to my Mom who told me he had also told on Grandpa. My father was diagnosed last week with Shingles and is in quite a bit of pain. Daelyn, while visiting on Saturday, told Grandpa to stop scratching, that he wasn't allowed to scratch, then ran to report to Grandma.

If he keeps this up, he may be on the plane to South America with James on Wednesday. I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa will pitch in on the fare.