Living Dangerously/Poor Fred

It started as an unusually quiet Monday morning. That is, quiet by the standards of our family of seven! School had gone relatively well and recess had just commenced. Kalia and I were finishing up a final math question but Ariana and Joel were already up in their favourite spot: the unfinished treehouse.

Rolf was busy working on some reports inside the car in order to tune out the chatter of our four year old daughter playing in the house. Because of this, he was 5 feet away from the treehouse. Cries for help caused both of us to jump from our positions and run to to the base of the tree.

Ariana was dangling 13 feet off the ground! With one hand she gripped a branch and with the other a rope. She and Joel had been playing a prohibited game involving throwing things up from the ground into the treehouse. The reason that it was prohibited was because rails on two sides had not yet been constructed.

When Rolf ran to the foot of the tree and looked up, it was clear at a glance that Ariana could not hold on any longer. So he commanded her to let go; she instantly obeyed. The event happened so quickly that there was no time to make a second plan. The catch was flawless, with Rolf executing a backward tumble so that she wouldn't slip through his arms.

My treehouse nightmare had nearly come true before my very eyes. That afternoon the rails were completed. Filled with thanksgiving, we spoke of God's mercy throughout the day and the days to come. God's hand, an angel preventing harm, Ariana's unsually strong grip. To God be the glory.

Then over the lunch hour, as the children were relaying science details to their dad about the human body, he broke the news. We had left the classroom door ajar and he found goats chewing on our school papers. Unfortunately all that was left of Freddy, our lifesize paper stock skeleton, were his legs! That is right - we found his tibias, fibulas and femurs. The wall above his legs void. Ariana wittily replied: “Freddy's second death. Eaten by a goat.”

Signs of goat sputum were found on the remains of school work that the children held up. A half eaten map, a single rib, a shredded colouring page. Sigh. Goats do more damage in an hour than rats and termites do in a month. 

Our new skeleton, Teddy, is now placed on the wall attached to Freddy's remains and we have learned another valuable lesson: never leave the classroom door open.