At the last flea market, I heard a tremendous and horrible crash. Sounded like hundreds of glass items breaking. I rounded the corner and sitting among all that broken glass, in a total fucking state of panic, was my boy. He tripped, fell against a shelf and broke about seventy bucks worth of collectible glassware. Then he went into a complete panic attack. He was crying and completely terrified. Afraid of my reaction. Afraid of the sound of the breaking glass. Afraid of everything in the world. I had to take him out and calm him down. I can't even describe the state he was in. He looked like he was about to have some kind of seizure. I finally convinced him that he wasn't in trouble. It was an accident. He was so afraid that I'd punish him somehow. I didn't. I paid the bill and then kiddo and I had a long chat about being really careful around vintage glassware. It could've been worse. Much worse. The booth next to the one where Brendan tripped had pieces that were each in excess of $200. Still, the whole thing has left me somewhat exhausted. But we're hitting the flea markets again tomorrow. I don't want the kid to be afraid of doing something he loves so much. I just want him to be a bit more careful around the glass displays. |
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Wow. What crappy glass that must have been. |
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some of the glassware didn't break, for some weird reason. what got broken was a lot of saucers. they weren't high-dollar items (it did wipe out nearly an entire set of white saucers, though). on the other side of the booth, like pilate said, was some of the more expensive glass items. a butter dish, a $2 vase & some cups got broken, too. it sounded awful. i thought that brendan had broken the entire damn shelf, but a lot of the larger pieces remained intact. it turned out to be less expensive pieces from someone who was just trying to clear out some lower-end glassware. some of the items weren't even glass--there were metal pieces--but they hit the floor w/ a serious crash. brendan got a small cut on his forearm from one of the saucers, but it was fairly minor. i was afraid that the damage was going to be in the hundreds of dollars, but brendan lucked out & destroyed the cheap stuff. |
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we're going back out to the flea markets in a while. brendan seems OK now. his friend, violet, helped calm him down a lot. sometimes, brendan (& pilate) refer to violet as "sissy", because she considers herself brendan's sister. the two kids held hands in the back of the car all the way home. brendan wouldn't let go of her hand. he was still shaking and scared, but violet wrapped a jacket around him and held his hand. they got home & went to bed. pilate tucked them in together & they fell right asleep. |
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Tell Brendan he got off light. |
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