Friday, February 25, 2011

Year of Pleasures 7

Cousins. Watching my kids play with my cousin's kids made me realize just how much the wonderfulness of my childhood revolved around my cousins. They were in house playmates, siblings that never got old or pesky.

When I was six, spilled fish chowder left me with third degree burns. My  mother rushed me to the hospital and I spent nearly three weeks in utter pain. None of the process was good. Burn pain is insidious and just when you think it's gone away, it surprises you. One day, I thought I was feeling better so my aunt brought my favorite cousin, Velvet, to come play with me. She had picked up a set of paper dolls for each of us. I was so excited to see another child especially one who was my best friend. All morning all I could think about was how great it was going to be to finally see Velvet.

And when she arrived, the pain came back. I was so disappointed and for about an hour I was able to jolly through it but at some point the pain was too much. I had to admit defeat and I still remember thinking that the look of disappointment on her face was mirrored in my mind. I still feel bad that we were not able to play together that day.

On Saturday, we sat together, drank coffee, talked about our kids, and remembered the Devil's Pit. And we watched our kids play together. Cousins.

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