Scary Things

This morning when I woke up, I was on autopilot as usual. Put on the clothes, put on the shoes, take the gym bag downstairs, take out the garbage ... it was only when I stepped outside into the fingers of icy wind, twirling a few stray snowflakes around in the darkness, that I realized what a truly creepy morning it was. Very October.

Anyway, I came back inside and was crossing the living room toward the bathroom to wash my hands, when suddenly I spotted ... very quiet, very still ... behind the rocking chair ... a thatch of black hair crowning an orange face.

Now, on a certain conscious level, I knew it was just Xavier, that he must have awakened when I came downstairs, and he had whimsically put on the pumpkin mask that my mother had sent him in the mail. On a less rational level, my mind screamed, "Oh my gosh, it's Chuckie!" (The scary doll from the movie Child's Play, which I have not actually seen.) I think if he had been dancing around (or if I had had more sleep) he would not have been quite so frightening. Anyway, once I stepped around the rocking chair and saw him standing there with his blue "fish" pajamas, a Humpty Dumpty magazine, and a bear, he wasn't nearly as scary, the mask not withstanding.

The mask is a big favorite with him, as it turns out, because he wore it the entire time we were at the pet store, buying a Beta fish for Gwen. She has gotten really excited about the prospect of getting a pet fish since she saw the aquarium in the Sunday School room. I, on the other hand, have been a little apprehensive, because fish, well ... they come about as close to disposable pets as they come. In fact, it is not entirely unexpected when a fish fails to survive even the short trip home from the pet store. To prepare Gwen for this trauma, I explained to her on the way to the pet store that these things happen, and that the average life span for a fish is probably less than a year. Gwen nodded blissfully, then made observations all the way home along the lines of, "Look! He likes me!" and "He sure looks hungry!"

Xavier, on the other hand, really seized upon the prospect of the fish's mortality, and kept saying, "You know that fish is going to die, don't you, Gwen? Mommy, what if the fish dies tonight? If you feed it too much, Miwanda, that fish is going to die."

Die, die, die. That fish probably would die if he was capable of understanding what Gwen has named it: Loveboy Love Superfish. I love my daughter, but if that isn't scary, I don't know what is.