The other night, I was out (Paul). We need to pack so we can move, and I got some new Lego sets recently (including a DRAGON!), so M decided to break those down and put them away so they're ready to move. Usually, breaking down and sorting Legos is something that Kiara and me both like a lot, so it wasn't surprising when we slid from M being out to her and me both, and then to just me. That's totally normal for doing Lego stuff.
But then it got weird. I was probably 11 when I started working on them, but slid back to 8 before I knew it was happening. Most of the time, age shifts are pretty hard/break kinda things. But this time, it was a real slip-n-slide backward. When I got to 8, I thought I'd stop, but I kept slipping back more. Usually, my younger-than-8 selves are really separate from the older mes. That's why we call them Baby Paul, like a whole different alter.
Well, eventually we couldn't work on the Legos anymore; Baby Paul isn't allowed to play with them, and doesn't know how to sort them or anything. About that time, Boss came in, and he offered to read Baby Paul some books. Now, BP didn't even know about books until Boss showed him some, so it was pretty exciting to see him grab the books M had bought for him. Even cooler, he obviously knew Goodnight Moon, and talked a little bit along with it!
BP usually doesn't talk much, just looks and maybe reaches. But this time he said "mow" for the kittens and "rar" for the bears, and said "shh" with the little old lady. Usually BP is two years old, but I really got the feeling he was a little older, maybe three years old. He even gestured to ask Boss to watch cartoons on his phone, like they had done once before. He's way behind other little kids his age talking, but that doesn't surprise me, given my history growing up.
Everything was going so well, Boss tried to get BP to leave the room. What Boss doesn't know is that Baby Paul had left, earlier, when we were still alone in our room. There was a scratching noise in the hall, and he had snuck down and opened a door, letting the cat out of a room it was trapped in. But nobody saw that 'cept me.
So anyway, Boss called the dog over for BP to pet. I'm pretty much the only one of our system that will pet the dogs, because we're really allergic to them. But I'm really careful only to let one hand touch them and nothing else, and then to go wash my hands quick when I'm done. But Boss didn't know that, so he let BP pet the dog, and the dog rolled onto our legs and licked our arm and rubbed all over us. So yeah, the allergic reaction wasn't far behind. Baby Paul started scratching all over, and whining a lot. Boss had to pull him into the bathroom and strip off his clothes and wash him good. We had hives for a whole day or more after.
But aside from the allergic reaction, Baby Paul being out was really cool. He got some acting-like-a-toddler time out where he wasn't scared and somebody was taking care of him and being nice. That's pretty rare to come across in my world. So I'm really glad it happened. Looking back, I think I told the story out of order some, but it's not really important. I still have to get those Legos sorted before we move, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment