Line

Line surprised me today. When I asked her to please take Ane on a walk for 15 minutes around the block, she balked completely, and let me know very clearly her displeasure at the idea. This was a reaction that I've just recently started to see from her, followed very quickly afterwards with a sincere apology and a request for my forgiveness. When the timing was appropriate I tried to talk to her about her actions and how to not necessarily change the way she was feeling, but to change the way she allowed those feelings to affect the way she treated me. Shortly after our talk I couldn't find her anywhere. I called her name several times without any response. Immediately I thought that perhaps she'd run away. The notion of her doing such a thing seems ridiculous. Not Line. But her other behavior choices recently have seemed so out of character that I wondered. My fear was quickly calmed, as she was just down in her bathroom.

When she eventually came upstairs I told her that she had freaked me out! I shared with her my freaked-out notions that she'd perhaps run away, followed by asking her, "You'd never do that, would you?" She paused, much too long for my taste, and said, "Uhhh, in my drama-mixed-up head, yes."

Mom: Where would you go?
Line: Just to the park, and I'd live in the tree that I always climb in.
Mom: Well, at least I know where to look if I can never find you.
Line: I'd just sneak into parties at the park and eat their food, pretending I was invited. I'd come back home when it got too cold.
Mom: I bet you'd get pretty stinky, never getting a shower or anything.
Line: Oh, I'd wash in the drinking fountains, although I wouldn't do it in public. I'd wait until no one was around.
Mom: What is it about the park that is so enticing?
Line: Just being able to be alone sometime.
Mom: Well, I could arrange that. What about if you went into the backyard in the hammock, and I made sure no one else went into the backyard for an hour or so?
Line: (after a thoughtful pause) Okay...I guess that would work.

Oh, she and her dramatic mind kill me sometimes. I appreciated how it took us from a place of frustration with each other to a place of humor and giggling. Thanks Line.