a well-dressed gentlemen on his day off had his two daughters one morning. they were rambunctious toddlers -one of them probably still in daipers. they were energetic and bouncing and singing and talking loudly.
he was getting coffee. he stood at the place where you can add creme and sugar and stir.
his kids were jumping and spinning.
the kid in diapers spun around real fast, then fell down. she head-planted into a chair. the chair bumped and moved a little when she hit it, face first. she started to cry. she didn't stand up.
he kept stirring his coffee.
she really started to cry. she stood up and wandered, crying at the top of her lungs, towards him.
he added another sugar packet, stirred. he didn't even flinch at his hurt kid. he didn't even speed up when she fell, head-first, into furniture.
finally, he put a lid on his coffee. he took a sip, to see if he had gotten his coffee just right.
the poor kid is screaming and holding her arms out to her older sister. you can see the red marks on her face and ear where she hit the chair.
the fellow finally picks her up. he tells her to stop crying. just stop crying. they wander off out the door.
people around the man, who saw this happen, all look at each other in horror. did we really see that, with our own eyes?
did that really happen? how could that have really happened, right in front of us?
what else could we have done?
eh, if someone else had come over to pick her up, it might have embarrassed the guy into being a father. I've done that. On the other hand, I once told a guy who was lying down by the pool that his infant son was eating leaves. He said, "That's all right." (Actually, I still laugh about that. Clearly the baby was not a first child!)
ReplyDeleteThat's sad and slightly scary. I definitely would have rushed over to the little girl, but I'm like that. Poor little tyke. I wonder how her father was treated when he was a child though. I really think children are a product of their parents. Shakespeare would agree. King Lear, case and point.
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