there's something on her, resting on her chest where the car seat straps across her. no way it can be what i think it is. "what is that?????" i exclaim, adding to the silent panic already spread across her face. oops, mommy keep it in check. okay, i've got to pull over.
there is just simply no possible way that can be what i think it is. calm down, it's just leaf. i throw open my door, run around the car to the back door and open it. i look at my girl, who is still in a panic and looking at me to fix it. she's not saying anything and seems to be holding her breath. i look down at the object. sure enough, sitting on my girl, bottom facing up..........
..........an octopus.
yes, that's right. a perfectly intact, dark red octopus about the size of the palm of my hand. obviously dead, its arms fixed spread out like a star fish, suction cups staring back at me. it was either on her shirt hiding under her vest, or it fell off of her vest during removal just a minute ago. normally there is no way i would touch this thing but mommy instinct took over. i grabbed that thing and chucked it on the side of the road. "ok elsie, no big deal," play it off like it was a leaf.
back in the car and off we go. "so elsie, did you have sharing in your classroom today?" yes but not that. hmmm, i'm at a loss. we go home, change her out of the shirt that now had octopus goo on it (along with bunny, who immediately had a bath), and she goes down for a nap. she seemed just fine and not traumatized by the experience, which is more than i can say for myself. did that really just happen?
so while my girl is asleep, i talk to charles and relay this crazy story to him. "you have to go to the school and find that thing because no one will believe me.......and i've littered, which i'm feeling very guilty about."
he's such a good sport, stops by the school and finds the little guy on the side of the road. "yep, it sure is an octopus." he took it into the school and brought it to their attention. they launch an "investigation" asking all of the teachers if the "specimen" looked familiar. now i should say that by this time, charles and i had sort of decided, after much discussion, that it was probably someone's lunch. hard to imagine it wouldn't be cut up and stuffed into a baggie or plastic container, but what do i know about sending octopus in a child's lunch? i wanted to be respectful of this and not blow it out of proportion. i mean i wouldn't want someone reacting this way to elsie's peanut butter sandwich.
i got a call from the director of the school. i spoke at length with elsie's teacher. they were clearly taking this very seriously and wanted to get to the bottom of things. we had no idea where it came from. elsie is very sensitive about things, especially right now, not wanting to walk past a wall that's harboring a mosquito. they were worried that she would relate school with......well an octopus.
in the end, elsie's teacher showed the little guy to one of the parents (well, many, many parents) stating that it was found in a classroom. one of the parents recognized it as an item they have in their house for grown-ups to snack on, not the children of the house as it's a choking hazard. no one knows how he ventured to school but we can all imagine the child's fascination with it, picking it up to bring along, something mom and dad get but not me. or perhaps it accidentally stuck to the child's lunchbox while in the kitchen of the home and hung on for the ride, eventually landing on elsie's vest. pickled though, so never living.
anyway, makes for a very interesting story, and it all belongs to my girl.
1 comment:
I love this! Imagine your surprise, a leaf? No! An octopus! hahahaha
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