As usual, on days when it rains and I can’t get the girls out on the bike for exercise, I walk them round the block after dinner, in the hope this will burn off some energy before bedtime. This usually degenerates into a race between the three of us.
I’d already played hide and seek with the girls, and had a rather fun time of it. I hid on one side of a tree and ran around it as La Serpiente ran past, and she totally missed me. That have me the chance to run up behind my daughters and yell boo! so loud that La Serpiente fell over with surprise.
We ran down the street behind our house, Destroyer in the lead. She stopped, as she is wont to do so, and as we ran up to her, she grabbed La Serpiente’s arm. I guess she was thinking it would be funny, but that pitched her sister onto the ground with a thump, followed shortly by Destroyer.
I was livid – La Serpiente was howling in pain, bleeding from several cuts on her right little finger. Destroyer was startled as well, and I had to carry two crying children home. While I searched for a plaster for La Serpiente, Destroyer went upstairs and banged her head as she crawled under her bed in shame and contrition.
La Serpiente wailed a lot, sad that she couldn’t read, unable to concentrate from the pain, and foregoing her usual bedtime stories. I dressed her wound, assured her it would be ok, and then they were both asleep before 8. So at least that part of the scheme worked.