Stories from My Youth: I - Burn on the Tummy

Baby brother is sleeping, and another is crying; Mother is frantically running back and forth, in and out of the room, and Father is at store, working until very late. This was the observation of a four year old boy, half naked, waiting patiently for Mother to shower with him. For all short life he has been taken care of by Mama and Mother. But now that the family has just moved to a newer, but much smaller apartment, and Mama no longer lives near their home, poor Mother really has no time to give all her attention to the little boy. Stilling running back and forth in and out of the only bedroom of the house, and into the living room (which is also the dining and family room), Mother told the little boy, "go and take the shower by yourself."

The little boy looked a bit reluctant. One can imagine a cloud of confusion forming in front of the forehead of the boy. But such a small cloud was scarcely noticeable in a room where greater clouds of confusion trail Mother.

"Just turn the knob to the left and you'll get hot water." Mother said.

And so the little boy went inside the bedroom, opened his own little closet, carefully took out his clothes ("Remember, one t-shirt, one pair of pants and one pair of socks!"), closed the closet ("Remember, always close the closet!") and rushed out of the room and into the bathroom. He closed the door, took off his clothes, carefully ("Always be careful!") laying them on the floor (so that when he is done, he can step on the clothes so as to not get the floor wet), stood on the toilet lid and took the shower handle off the rack just above the toilet. Remembering how Mother used to hold the handle, he held it with his right hand, and, remembering Mother's instructions, turned the knob all the way left. Water came out, and the little boy pointed the shower head to his tummy.

Success! He thought.

The water, however, soon turned from cold to warm, from warm to burning hot. It is burning the little boy's belly button! Yet the boy turned not the shower off, nor pointed the shower head away from his tummy. Why is it so hot? That’s not how it was when Mother showered with me...

"Mother!" The little boy let out a scream, and did not realize that it was a lot more horrific than he thought.

Mother rushed in, and quickly turned off the water. She put the shower handle back on the rack ("Always put things back to where you found them"), and looked at the tummy, which was now redden with a slight burn.

The little boy now cried. Oh! The tears were enough for his shower that day. Mother took the boy’s hand and led the little wet, naked boy outside. After drying the boy, Mother then pulled out the emergency kit in the kitchen and took care of the burn around the belly-button. Then she gave him a toy car, and he happily ran off to the room and played.

Father came home at ten that night. Mother told of him the small accident. Father said to the little boy, "My little man, as long as your little thing is okay, you are fine. Man must be able to bear pain, for man must do many great things in -"

"Your soup's ready, hungry bear..." Mother called from the kitchen.