I need to tell you something

He was coming off of a heavy kool-aid buzz.  I don’t remember his name, but I remember he was about 6 years old and hyper.  Hyper is a mellow term.  He was jacked up. Like a squirrel on meth.  I was sitting next to him as the teacher talked about being well-behaved.  This kid was squirming.  Being his chaperone for the day, I had been talking to him the entire time, trying to turn down his energy.  "Relax." I would say. "Listen to what the teacher is saying."  With each instruction I would get closer to his face.  "The teacher is talking about important things.  You have to calm down and listen." I must have told him this at least ten times. Maybe a hundred.

He finally started to calm.  The teacher continued to talk about how we need to tell people that we are sorry when we do wrong things.

A few minutes went by.  I looked at the squirrel.  He seemed to be listening.  The teacher keep saying that we need to apologize when we have been rude.

He leaned over to me and whispered.  "I need to tell you something.  Then I need to say I am sorry."

Wow.  The Squirrel was listening.  It is possible that the speaker was getting through to him?  I chuckled to myself. I knew what was coming.  Squirrel-boy would say that he was wrong for being all wound up and crazy.  Then he would apologize.

I bent down close so no one would hear his confession, it was just him and me.  "Go ahead," I said, "What is on your mind?"

A pause.  The Squirrel moved his face close to mine.  I put my ear close to him.  It was confession time.  He opened his mouth and whispered in my ear.

"Your breath stinks.  I’m sorry."

photo by mandj98