Eggs, Ice and Tears

Suicide...by Francisquini

I can remember sitting on a brown chicken egg. I know that sounds a little too strange but I was four years old. My teacher in preschool had an incubator with chicken eggs so that we could what them hatch. That was one of that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I've always been an animal lover; so to be able to take the place of a hen and birth a baby chicken would be a the best.

See I'm not an ice queen! Ice Queen one of several nicknames that my mother gave me that made me smile: Mickey Mouse, peanut , etc… I blame the nick name on the movie Brian’s Song, the highly esteemed 70s tear jerker. My mom bawled at the end of it and I did not share a tear and I guess she noticed. I was born and raised on home grown tomatoes and soap operas. I absolutely love high drama but never seemed to have the same reaction that my mother did. I thought it was cool that my mother cried at the end of Ice Castles, Imitation of Life and Terms of Endearment because I felt the emotion of those heart wrenching movies , but crying wasn’t a natural reaction for me. When I considered the fact that maybe my response was not heart felt enough my mind quickly chimed in, telling me that these were actors that were still alive and that I could enjoy the movie just as much as my mother without Kleenex.

I don’t remember crying that much as a child. There are only a couple of incidents I can remember, but my mom loves to recount this particular incident. Again I was about four and my mother was downstairs in the kitchen cooking dinner and I was upstairs watching TV in my parents’ room. All of a sudden she heard me scream and cry at the top of my lungs; she ran upstairs at top speed. When she burst in the room she found me sitting upright in front of the TV. Confused as to what could cause this outburst she asked me what was wrong? Struggling to catch my breath and slow down my tears I heaved until I could yell out, “Boomer doesn’t have a home!”, and I continued to cry.

Just a little background Boomer, much like Benji, was a movie about a dog that some how got separated from his family and was combing the streets alone without anyone to love him. The concern and compassion that drove my mother up a flight of stairs in a heart beat to save her daughter from a life and death situation immediately evaporated and was replaced with temporary disdain. She’d probably never seen me emote that much before in my entire life. She couldn’t help but to remember us sitting side by side watching Brain’s Song without one single expression of sorrow, but without effort or restraint I cried as if I'd been run over by a truck when watching a movie about a dog; he was still alive and had a guaranteed happy ending.

One day I opened the fridge and found a brown chicken egg. Since I thought all eggs were white I concluded that this egg had a baby chicken in it. I informed my mother of this fact; although she did not seem to agree she allowed me to take it upstairs to hatch it. So with two friends in tow I went out on the porch were it was warm a squatted down like a good chicken mom. I was pretty strong kid and had nice thigh muscles so I did not foresee any problem; I can’t remember how long I lasted but the story ended with a cracked shell and yolk spread out on the porch floor. Although I took the responsibility for not saving the chick I had matured since the Boomer incident. My mother’s reaction taught me that all lives are important, whether it’s as a fictional person or dog, or an unborn egg. So with grace and discernment I did not cry over spilled yolk but I rejoiced at my Christmas present that year (a puppy).

Thanks mommy for understanding me!

Please share some special stories about your childhood.