Friday, November 21, 2008

Hand Cleaner

Last night the boy came running down the stairs holding the soap bottle from the bathroom. It had a hand written label on it that read, "Hand Cleaner". He thrust the bottle toward me and told me I should wash my hands.

I immediately stopped and evaluated the situation. A few items caught my attention and made me suspicious. The first clue was the hand written label. Whatever was now in the bottle has been labeled by the boy. Next I looked at his face. His smile was way too big. Whatever "cleaner" he put in the bottle made him very proud. Finally, I realized that this offer of hand washing was coming from an NINE YEAR OLD BOY! The only thing that would cause a nine year old boy to promote hand washing is a prank.

I looked at him and said, "No thanks."

He continued to pressure me to wash my hands and even stooped down to evaluate the current conditions of my hands. In his expert opinion, my hands were filthy! I declined him again and asked what was in the bottle. His answer was to point at the label.

He gave up and took the bottle upstairs before I could pressure him much more. He put the bottle back in the bathroom and waited for his sister to get home. Maybe her hands would be dirty.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nope, given that expression on his face there is no way I'd use his "cleaner." I'm sure you would have come away with fingers dyed purple or something.

I was nine once. I taught nine year-olds for a long time. I still remember.

Aaron said...

So what WAS in this concoction?

Anonymous said...

Oh my god what was IN that thing!

I'm thinking all sorts of horrible things! Did you ever find out?

RoadRunner said...

Probably superglue

Duck Hunter said...

turns out it was just water with some residue of soap. The joke was that when you pump the bottle the water would run out of your hand and make a mess. Great!

Meg and Family said...

We would be in a bunch of trouble if he and Tyler got together! It would be enough to make you paranoid!