Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Birth of The Biter.


This guy.
What happened was...

I was loading a trailer, one of three trailers for the day that were scheduled to leave for Miami Basel which is an art fair that happens every year that I have never attended because it sounds like too much work for too little money and if I do ever go it'll be on my own terms (I don't know what that means) and so the only thing I want to have to do with it is on the loading end which is why yesterday I was freezing my toes off in one of three trailers making walls out of crates and boxes and flat pieces of art when it occurred to me that perhaps what was needed was a boost of morale which is why I volunteered to run to Dunkin Donuts for some big jugs of coffee and also some donuts since everyone seemed very cold and slightly miserable including me and my boss who agreed that my idea was a good one and sent me off to gather the ingredients necessary to help keep people motivated through the long, wet day ahead.

While I was waiting in line at the store I received a message that my son was in trouble at school (gasp!) for biting another little boy on the finger and it was quite serious because the other little boy was bleeding.

So here I am, one minute feeling so pleased with myself for having pushed the coffee run through legislation and then the next minute feeling as though my son is sending me some kind of message that makes me feel the opposite of pleased with myself because obviously what kind of child bites another child hard enough to break the skin but a possibly future super vilain that for obvious reasons would be known as The Biter as he terrorizes the city, challenging all comers to just try and stop him and his villainous chompers?

Honestly, one minute I was up, the next I was lower than low.

My order was ready.
I paid for it and headed back, slower than before, sadder than before.
I asked for a minute alone with the supervisor and explained the situation, I had to leave early to go pick up Burger after school and talk with the teachers and apologize (I guess) for not having... 
What?
Seen the signs?
What signs?
Did I miss something?
Had he been aggressively biting his food at meals? 
Was he especially "gnashy" lately?
I hadn't heard any evil cackling after lights out...

All these things I thought about for the rest of my time in the trailers.
I made it through two of the three and then I had to leave.
While I walked to school, I thought of all the times I got in trouble and I remembered what an awful feeling it was to know I had done something wrong but wouldn't know the full extent of my trouble until I got home and faced my Mom and in the meantime had to finish the day with the weight of the unknown on my shoulders surrounded by the innocent and free and as soon as I locked eyes with Burger in the play yard there was an immediate recognition of these feelings in his eyes and this brought fresh tears.

We walked to a coffee shop where I felt like we could talk and I did my fatherly duties.
The story of why Burger bit the boy is not nearly as deep or scary as my imagination had built it up to be, there was no bad blood or ancient feud. 
It was just kid stuff, which I know how that sounds in today's society with all the terrible things that children are capable of, and I get it, that shit is scary.
But this was not that.
A Bad Guy he is not.

As we walked away from the school it was cold and raining and we passed a groups of giggling little girls "Bye Burger!" they yelled.

-Who were those girls?
Those were just some of my friends.
-Do they know what happened to you today?
Yes, they were in the room when it happened.
-Well they didn't seem too upset about it.
Sometimes we all make mistakes, Dad.

He stole my line.

loveyouguys, don't bite!

1 comment:

  1. This is so great. What a guy. Look at that face!

    ReplyDelete

No dick heads please.