Why supper is Late

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I had just started on dinner after a long day at work when Tommy came running into the kitchen with tears and snot running down his face again. “Tommy, what happened?” I asked as I knelt down to lift his five year old body to my breast. Of course, I already had a pretty good idea what was wrong. It was what was wrong way too often.

“Jack was pulling on tiger’s tale an’ tiger bit him an’ I laughed”. Jack is my sister-in-laws seven year old son. They lived across the street from us. Jack was my idea about what was wrong even if the explanation didn’t make sense yet.

“So why are you crying if Jack is the one who got bitten?” I asked.

“ He got mad ‘cause I laughed an’ he hit me in the nose and an’ he kicked me in the belly”

“ Honey, I’m sorry he hurt you again. Let me get a tissue and clean you up; then you can have a cookie, O.K. “

“O.K. Mom. Do we any fudge stripes?”

As I cleaned up my boy and got his cookie I was thinking that this had gone on long enough. George would have to talk to his sister and make it clear that she can’t just keep saying “boys will be boys” and ignore Jack’s bullying.

“Mom”, Tommy interrupted my thoughts, “I don’t want to be a boy any more.” My first thought was that if this was Jack's fault, I’m going to kill that brat. I knew better, of course. If Tommy was transgendered it had nothing to do with bullying. But mothers are not always logical. Then my education and training kicked in. As a pediatric nurse I had a little training but no experience in this area. I mentally floundered for a reaction. I wanted to be supportive without endorsing the idea too strongly. I was pretty sure what he meant but Tommy’s logic could be confusing at times.

“Do you think you are girl?” I asked.

“I’m a boy. You know that.”

Why don’t you want to be a boy?” I asked. It looked like this would be one of his forty question conversations.

“Cause Jack beats me up all the time” he answered.

“So you think he would stop hitting you if you were a girl?” Maybe, I thought he isn’t transgendered, just tired of getting hurt.

“No, Jack hits girls too. He hits Suzy and Jean." I was informed.

Now he had me confused, a not entirely unique experience. So I had to ask “
Then why do you want to be a girl?”

“ Ew! I don’t want to be a girl. I want to be a cat like tiger so I can bite Jack too.”

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Comments

I say this

As a compliment. I thought I was reading a Bru story. Nice twist.

Commentator
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Why supper was late

Yup definitely you deserve a compliment on your story. Great story! It also puts me in mind of a Bru story in a very good way.

Time is the longest distance to your destination.

I want to be...

Hypatia Littlewings's picture

... an anthropomorphic Cat Girl Fairy with superpowers!

DCUO_EirawenEmrys(512).jpg
My Eirawen(Welsh name meaning "SnowWhite")
Character in DC Universe Online.

.

Meow! *giggles*
~Hypatia >i< ..:::

hee hee

Bru is contagious.

Fun story with a twist.

Thanks you to everyone

A compliment like being compared to Bru is much more than an I was hoping for from this. It came out of the fact that with all the media coverage of transgender issues in the recent past there must be at least one mother out there like mine. Whatever ailment was in the news she was certain at least one of us was showing symptoms. She was an Olympic class worrier and first rate at jumping to conclusions too but she was the best at the wiping up tears and cookies stuff.

Kid logic

Jamie Lee's picture

Mom sure went the other way with her thoughts about "not being a boy."

But kid logic ruled here, tiger bit Jack so if Tommy was a tiger then he could bite Jack too, even though he hasn't figured out yet that he can still bite Jack while being a boy.

Nice little story, and twist.

Others have feelings too.

giggles

well, that was unexpected! and cute, too!

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Thanks Dorothy

for reading and commenting on my stories. You are a strong opinion leader here. All of the stories you have commented on are showing a bump in readership.

Lessons

Daphne Xu's picture

So Greybeard has been taking lessons from Bru? Just kidding, many authors know the value of a twist ending sneaking up on you.

-- Daphne Xu

-- Try saying freefloating three times rapidly.