Father Josh Lends a Hand . . . From Charlie's Diary

Saturday:  Betsey still isn’t going to Sunday School, but she has stopped talking about her grievances.  She may be waiting to be asked to go.  I’m going to bring it up next week.  Maybe we can have a Discussion. 

Sunday:  Today, after we got home from church, Josh said, “Aidan asked where you’d been today.”  Aidan is a boy in Betsey’s class.

First she looked panicky.  “What did you tell him?”

Josh shrugged.  “I just said, ‘My mom says she’s rebelling.’  Then we got some cookies.” 

I don’t know where he got the bit about rebelling.  I didn’t say that.  But lately Josh has been coming up with more than “Good one” or “No way, Jose.”  I waited for Betsey to start scolding me that this was all my fault, but she hadn’t really noticed.  She had a look in her eyes, like she was interested.

“What else did he say?”

“He said he was going to play softball this spring.”

“No, I mean about me.”

“Nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, he said, ‘Your mom must be really cool not to make her go.’”

Then I got interested.  “What did you say?” I asked.

“I said, ‘Yeah, she’s OK.’”

I guess a parent’s wishy-washy is a kid’s really cool.  I’ll take it.

Cilla worried that Ed’s feelings might be hurt.  “You’re cool too, Daddy.”

“Thank you.  I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me.”

Well, if it takes a boy to get her back to Sunday School, I’ll take that, too.  I’d really like some closure about the pigs, but you can’t have everything.