A Fairy Tale

My brother-in-law had a coronary "event" on Friday night. Involved a scary 911 call (my hubby trying to call 911 from his cell phone, all the while trying to drive safely to said brother-in-law's home), an ambulance trip to St. Peter's and emergency surgery. He's back home (only two days later) and is on the road to recovery.

Meanwhile, I'm 100 miles away taking care of my mom and hubby is supposed to be maintaining our business and keeping the 16-year-old boy in line.

Now, this 16-year-old often forgets to wash his dishes (we've taken pictures of his room to document the filth) and most often will not finish his daily chores until you are pulling in the driveway at the end of the day. A typical, teenage boy - right?

As my hubby and I are filling each other in on the events of our day (about 11 pm at night), he asks me, "are you sitting down?" Uh-oh, I think... this can NOT be good news. I sigh and reply, "yes, I'm sitting down - what happened NOW????" And my husband begins telling me a fairy tale about a teenage boy (who looks just like my son) ... and this teenage boy asks my husband, "what can I do to help while you go back up to the hospital?" My husband decides to share his list of weekend "to-do" items that would have gotten done, if brother-in-law hadn't scared the hell out of us with his medical emergency. So, this teenage boy (in the fairy tale) sits down at the kitchen table and makes a LIST - with actual paper and a writing instrument.

Here is the list:

1. take pool pump and items from shed to pool to be setup
2. cut down ornamental grass (from last year) - strong warning not to cut off any fingers while using clippers since both parental units will be many miles away and may not be reachable via cellphone
3. remove plastic from porch windows - this is a big one. It involves eight windows, with four screws per window. A step ladder is required, as well as a cordless drill to remove the screws. Teenage boy is warned that none of the screws can be dropped/lost as they are custom for the windows and would be difficult to replace. Additional warning about the borrowed step ladder and the fact that it is not very sturdy when used near the porch and a fall, thus resulting in an injury, would be a problem (see #2).

Here's where the fairy tale part comes in... when hubby comes home from hospital (about 10 pm), EVERYTHING on the list has been down. No missing fingers, no falls from the ladder, no lost screws and everything has been put away... it is all done.

"You're lying," I tell him, " you are lying to me just to make me feel better about everything else today - right?" "No," says husband, "he really did everything on the list." I am so proud - there is hope for the teenage boy.

Yet, there is no sign of the plastic from each of the large windows (did I mention there were eight of them?)... not in the garbage, not on the ground in a pile - do you suppose he stuffed it all under the bed with his dirty dishes and clothes?