the scream

you only need to hear it once to know it's different. not like any other scream you've ever heard. something about it immediately tells you there's something terribly wrong.

we'd heard it once before, last march. the five of us were getting ready to go out for an after dinner walk. owen was in the backyard, jumping from one cement slab of our raised septic tank to the other. he came up a bit short, and hit the cement face first. we were in the garage, getting molly and brendan ready, when he screamed. it was obvious from the sound that it was more than a scrape, and in the few seconds it took us to get to him, he had blood everywhere. took 7 or 8 stitches to close the cut, but he's no worse for wear now. even has the zigzag scar between the eyes to go with his harry potter glasses.

heard the scream again tonight. all 3 kids were in the backyard on the playset, while we sat at the kitchen table talking and watching them thru the window. it was brendan this time, letting out a scream that made owen's sound like a whimper. we didn't see anything happen, but from the house could see him sitting on the ground at the base of the slide. erin was convinced he was bleeding, i thought for sure he'd broken his leg. he knew exactly what had happened: "I GOT STUNG BY A BEE!!!!!" sure enough, the stinger was still there, right in the middle of his shin. he continued to scream as we brought him in the house, and as if the stinger had a direct connection to his sound card, he stopped almost immediately when we pulled it out.

a little ice, a band-aid, and about 10 minutes of extra attention were all it took to return him and the house to a sense of normalcy. i told him that even though he was just fine, the bee was not, because it would die without its stinger. erin thanked him for taking one for the team and ridding the world of one more bee. he said, "you're welcome, but it still hurts".