From Triumph to Tragedy in Less than One Second

It was a lovely spring day. The outdoors beckoned to the children, "Come little ones, come play in nature, come enjoy the sun, come and have fun." The little ones asked their busy mother, "Mommy can we play outside while you make lunch." Mommy quickly nodded, opened the patio door and pulled out the fold-away slide. Joy and exuberance carried the children to the backyard while Mommy went back inside to make lunch and vacuum up the crumbs from Baby Boy's high chair seat. Mid vacuum, a little girl ran inside calling, "Mommy, Mommy!" Mommy, who was within visual perception of the children wondered what could be wrong that she wouldn't have seen. The young one supplied the answer, "I threw the football over the fence into our neighbors' yard!"

Eyewitness account told Mommy that the neighbors had left the house not 5 minutes earlier. There would be no way to retrieve the ball until later that night. But wait, thought Mommy, I wonder just how far she threw the ball. A highly resourceful mother, she went to the backyard armed with a chair, which she had gingerly extracted from its place at the kitchen table. Perched atop the chair Mommy saw the offending football. Luck was on her side, the ball had settled itself in the shade up against the cinder block wall that is the fence. It looked up at her longingly, wishing to be back in its own yard nestled beneath the trees on the beautiful & still green winter grass. Pity overcame Mommy and she thought, I must rescue this wayward ball! Now what manner of tool could I use to extract this pitiful creature from its unfortunate predicament.

A trip to the garage provided ample solution for the sad situation. The garden rake came graciously down from its hallowed perch & offered its services to the hopeful mother. Returning to the scene, Mommy once again scaled the kitchen table's chair, hung the rake over the wall and delicately coaxed the frightened football onto the awful teeth of the rake. It laid there trembling as she pulled it up along the wall. It scraped and pulled at the ball a bit, but by now it knew it was committed and hung on, fearing the injury another fall could produce.

At last! Victory! The football was falling lightly into the waiting hands of Mommy. Only, what was this. Baby Boy had been clamoring to climb up the chair throughout the difficult ordeal. He succeeded just as the ball was slipping of the rake. Baby Boy lost his balance on the overburdened chair. As the football landed safely, Baby Boy's luck ran out. His feet bade farewell to the chair seat and he tumbled down, scraping his chin soundly against the cruel cinder blocks. Blood was seen soon after and Baby boy wailed with his best out-door scream. Mommy scooped up Baby and rushed indoors. A cold wet washcloth was quickly applied to the gruesomely scraped flesh.

Football thanked Baby Boy for his unselfish sacrifice as it lay basking in the soft green grass of its own backyard. Happy and content once more.