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Another Katie Story

Well, after my last post about Katie's penchant for doing the wrong thing, I didn't expect to have another Katie story so soon.

We went to our homeschool co-op yesterday. The co-op consists of around 40 people and we all get together to do PE, and study science, art and writing. In the hustle and bustle of everyone arriving and getting their things in order, Katie realized she had left her science experiment in the car and asked for the keys to go back out and get it.

Then we all settled down into our classes; I wasn't teaching during the science class today so I was talking with another mom for a while.

About 40 minutes into class time, Katie came running through the house and tearfully flung herself into my lap. She was red and sweaty, and I was trying to determine if she was hurt or just upset about something that had happened in her class.

Turns out when she had gone out to the van to get her experiment, she had opened the sliding door on the van just wide enough to enter, and once she was in, it slid shut. She realized her experiment was in the very back of the van in the hatchback area and climbed over the seats to get there. Once in the very rear, she couldn't get herself back up over the seat because it came all the way up to her armpits, and the sloping glass at the back didn't allow her enough room for leverage. Because she had the keys with her, she wisely set off the car alarm a couple of times hoping someone would hear it and come rescue her. I didn't hear it although several others did, but of course no one did anything because no one pays attention to car alarms going off these days.

Finally, after 40 minutes in a sweltering hot car, a neighbor who was driving down the street looked in her rear view mirror and saw Katie beating on the back window and crying. She got out of her car and ran to open the hatch and let Katie out.

Poor Katie was drenched in sweat and beet red. It took quite a while for us to get her cooled off. I rubbed her with a cold wet towel and gave her ice water to drink until her color returned to normal. By lunch time she was telling a dramatic rendition to all who would listen of how she just barely cheated death.

I had thought she was in class, and her teacher had thought she was with me.

Mommy guilt galore.
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