Things can go wrong within the four walls of the house as easily as it can go wrong in the playground. This I learnt a quarter century ago when the Second Born, seven at the time, tripped and fell in his room. All morning he had been out playing cricket with his newfound friends in the neighborhood we had just moved into, but the minute he was safely back inside the house, he fell and hurt himself.

As falls go it was quite minor, but there was a gash to one side of his forehead. One look at him and I knew he’d need stitches. The L&M and I had been busy all morning trying to get the house in order. He would be leaving soon for his work place and there was still a lot to be done. He was in fact about to leave on an errand to get curtain roods when the fall happened.

I sent the First Born racing downstairs to stop him. We needed to go to the doctor. At the hospital, the doctor confirmed my fears, the boy needed stitches. As he was being prepped, believe it or not, the L&M told me he was going with the orderly to get the curtain rods. ‘What the heck!’ I remember thinking to myself. ‘Your boy is getting stitches and you are in a hurry to get the curtain rods!‘ The curtain rods weren’t going to fly away if there was a delay of a few hours, would they? Anyway, I kept the thoughts to myself and told him of course he could leave.

Meanwhile, the son kept calling me to his side. He wanted me to hold his hand. That’s something that has always calmed him and I knew he needed me by his side. But the nurse wouldn’t let me step into the room. Luckily the doctor breezed in just then and when apprised of events immediately said, of course I could stay. You wouldn’t faint on me would you, he joked when I walked in. I assured him I wouldn’t and I didn’t.

That’s when it struck me, the reason the L&M had been in a hurry to get away.

He never could bear to see the children getting their shots while babies. It had always been me taking them to get their jabs. If at all he happened to be in the room, he would turn his face away. How then could he have remained and watched one of them getting a gash sewed up? The curtain rods were a ruse to be away from the place and the situation. He was back in time though to take us home.

© Shail Mohan 2021

This brings thirty days of #SeptemberMusings to an end. What’s in store for October? Hibernation or continuation? Time will tell as it always does. Thank you, for reading, as always.