Thursday, April 16, 2009

You killed Fluffy!

I was teaching a lesson on head injuries a while back, ending with scenarios, as usual. The scenario I came up with involved a person riding their bike, swerving to miss a cat named Fluffy, and hitting a tree. One of the members had brought her small son with her, who was sitting quietly in his corner and raptly watching Mommy treat the patient. She called me a few days later to tell me the following story...

Driving home down a country road with Kenny in the back seat, I noticed a small rabbit jump out of the ditch just in front of the car. "Oh no!" I thought, "It's Fluffy, and if I swerve I'll hit a tree and get a head injury!" With the scenario from training in my mind, I stoically held course, hitting the rabbit but staying on the road and away from the trees. Hoping Kenny hadn't seen anything, I kept driving as if nothing had happened.

Childish laughter from the backseat surprised me as Kenny spoke up, "Mommy, it was Fluffy! You killed Fluffy!!" He got a kick out of it, but I had to open my big mouth, "No, honey, Fluffy was a cat, that was a rabbit." So much for making it better, the laughter stopped and his eyes welled up in tears, "You killed the Easter Bunny! Mom, you killed the Easter Bunny!" Now he was bawling his little eyes out, "Good move", I thought, mentally kicking myself. "No, no, honey, that was way too small to be the Easter Bunny, he's much bigger!" This thought placated my crying son, and he turned off the waterworks, only to start giggling again. "Mommy killed Fluffy! You did, you killed Fluffy!" Apparently hitting a cat is funny, but killing the Easter Bunny is a horrific crime.