When Eric was eight, he
skinned his knee, jumping down from the tree in his backyard. He would recount the event as his first
“brush with death” as he fell out of a tree that was twenty, maybe even thirty,
feet tall, and he had climbed all the way to the top. His mother would kindly
remind Eric that he was only on a branch about three feet off the ground, and
he didn’t fall, but made the deliberate choice to jump. When Eric argued that
it was deliberate, his mother calmly recounted that right before he “fell” he
yelled “Watch me Mommy, I’m going to jump!” After that, Eric was forced to pout
and wonder aloud why his mother always had to ruin his fun, and in front of his
girlfriend too.
Her response was always the
same. "Because that's a mother's
job. Now eat your peas.". It was
especially fun when they weren't actually eating peas, because Eric would get
even more flustered.
Not that Sarah, the longtime
girlfriend, had ever believed the thirty foot tree story, but she loved when
Eric and his mother got into the frequently reoccurring "Tree Fight."
There was something so lovely about a twenty eight year old man acting like a
sixteen year old boy out of love for his mother. There was a tradition in it that Sarah found
wonderful, and the fact that Eric played along with it--well, it just made it
that much better. It was a silly thought, but she hoped that someday, she would
be able to ruin her own son's fun, and in front of his girlfriend. And if that kid loved her half as much as
Eric loved his mother, well, then she'd be doing all right.
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