When Greg was four,
he must have believed he was superman, even though he was very small
and skinny. Once I found him nearly at the top of a thirty-foot tree in
the back of the apartments where we lived. The branches of the tree
hung over a deep ditch filled with water and snapping turtles. There
was no way I could climb up to get him, so I told him to come back down
the way he had climbed up. Thankfully he managed, scrambling and
slipping all the way back down.
Greg likes to remember the time
he came up from the same creek with a handful of big, fat worms to show
me. When I saw my little boy with all those squirming, dirty globs of
pulp, I immediately made him drop them and cleaned off his hands. He
was terribly offended. The last thing I remember about that day was
that little, face with great big tears rolling down his cheeks, because
he couldn’t keep those treasured worms!
Later that summer, he was
crossing a bridge over the same creek, but not like most would cross
the bridge. He chose to balance on the slender railing. The next thing
I knew his friends had come to the back door screaming, “Gregory’s
dead! He fell into the creek and he’s not moving! Naturally I ran hell
bent for election and sure enough, there at the bottom of the creek,
laying very still half in the water, was my little boy.
By now
the neighbors had all gathered and were telling me not to move him
because he might have a neck or back injury. However, seeing my baby
lying there so still was more than I could handle and I immediately
jumped down and picked him up. He was unconscious, so I put him in the
car and raced to the hospital. By the time I got there, he was awake
and wondering what all the fuss was about.
This was all just a
glimpse of what was to come. There was never a dull moment, and as Greg
got older, the daredevil in him got even riskier, and actually funnier!
If he lets me, I’ll tell you about the Halloween costume!
By Joan Virden, writer and Greg's mother
http://www.joanvirden.webstarts.com
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