2023 Author: Anita Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 03:30
Today I'm trying a new type of ticket. It's called Slice of Life. You will be the judge to know if this series will include more than one text or not… So I'll start and we'll see!
I recently put on the Facebook of our blog for dads the following photo (see opposite).
I also added an explanatory text that looked like this: “My little one lost a tooth… in the schoolyard! I told him I was going to have a look… The gravel in the yard is full of little white rocks the size of… teeth! An hour later…Mission impossible. »
But the story doesn't end there!
Oh nooooo…
So it must be 7:30, 8:00 at night. I had just put the little ones to bed. I'm leaving the house…
(Ok precision when you leave! My girlfriend is at home, so the children are not alone!)
…in the direction of the school. A few moments later I park my car on the other side of the street where the schoolyard is. I don't feel the need to roll up my windows, it's hot! I arrive in the gravel lot where my little one has apparently lost her tooth. I start my search, two seconds later I already tell myself that it's a waste of time! (For those who just joined us, gosee the text and the photo at the beginning of the article. Whatever starting an article at quarter is not champion! Anyway!)
I think that the popular expression "finding a needle in a haystack" is oddly appropriate. Folded in half, I pack the small rocks with my fingers. It's not been 10 minutes since I've been here and I already have pain in my back… Damn we're getting old! At this moment, a gang of young teenagers arrives in the courtyard. Some are on bicycles, others on foot, but all are listening to Sir Pathétik through the pathetic iPhone speaker of one of the band!
They are looking at me, talking to each other… I don't care, I'm on a mission! They approach.
“What are you looking for!? »
Me, a you!? I'm getting old a second time tonight!
“Yes, my daughter lost a tooth here and I promised her that I would try to find it. »
Quiet…
Judgment?
No! They offer me help!
We are now six, seven if I count Pathétik, looking for a tooth in s alt and pepper gravel! They ask me questions about my daughter. How old is she, how did it happen, if she is in pain… The young people I judged thinking they were judging me are now on my team! We're the Tooth Squad!
There's even one that comes out to me: "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack! »
We are accomplices! We think the same! He adds: “Not difficult to find a needle in a haystack, just to take a magnet! Yes! A magnet! Tse…What!? What do you think a needle is made of!? Metal! »
We think less the same there! But it's not big deal! After 15 minutes one of the teenagers gives up to “go to shit at home. That's what he told us anyway. Ten more minutes and I'll pull the plug.
"You're super nice, but I think it's impossible. Thank you very much for your help! »
“No trouble! Good evening, sir! »
Bang third old man! Too much in the same 24 hours, especially since they arrived in one!
I'm going to my tank. In the schoolyard, there is only me and the crew of young people, whom I leave. At the same time, I stop on the sidewalk to let the oncoming minivan pass. I meet the gaze of the driver. A cold look, filled with judgment and accusations. This driver is the mother of a little girl with whom my little one plays.
I wonder what that look meant.
That's when I see what I looked like. An older dude leaving young teens in a schoolyard… at night! I've probably become the pusher of the village, in this woman's head. I am a dad who corrupts and drugs the youth.
But you know what?! I don't care a bit. I knew what I had come to do in this schoolyard. That these young people are not necessarily potheads. Even if they are, they are above all good kids. Kind and generous young people. Young people like I was and like you were! To look immature and airresponsible don't mind! Because you know these words are often, inadvertently, associated with youth!
And I, the youth, love it! Besides, given the number of old looks I've had tonight, a young look can only do me good.
Here!
JF
