Page 11 - LIfesOuttakes1
P. 11

                   Tinkertoys In My Cupboard                                       l            We have Tinkertoys in our cupboard.  I’m not talking about the toy     cupboard.  I mean that I will sometimes pull out a bowl to put cereal in     and, half asleep, pour in cornflakes and milk.  I take a bite and receive     2000% of the unrecommended lifetime supply of fiber and plastic     polymers.  I really hate Tinkertoys in my cupboard.            “Who put the Tinkertoy in my cereal bowl?!” I holler, as I search     for my missing tooth.            I really didn’t need to ask that.  I knew who it was.  It was a 22-     month-old gremlin with blond hair, blue eyes, and piggy tails.  She has     taken a real liking to Tinkertoys.            There are Tinkertoys in the bowls, Tinkertoys in my bed,     Tinkertoys in my shoes, and Tinkertoys stuffed in the floppy drive of my     computer.  If I get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water, I am     sure to step on a Tinkertoy and roll bruisedy, scrapity, crashity down the     stairs.  The last time that happened, my hollering could have put any     decibel meter off the scale.  I woke the whole house and most of the     neighbors within a half mile radius.  I swore I was going to take every     Tinkertoy to the second-hand store.            But that was then.  My little, blond, blue-eyed gremlin has recently     been sick. We spent three days in the hospital, with her temperature     soaring to 106 degrees.  She slept in my arms as I comforted her, keeping     her from pulling on the IV that was giving her the life-saving antibiotic.  I     put cool cloths on her forehead, not daring to sleep for fear she would                                        6
   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16