Defining Moments

I couldn't have been more than 5. We were still going to Erial Community Church and I was in my Children's Church classroom. My class was playing Doggie Doggie Where's Your Bone. I had been chosen to be the bone stealer, which among the preschool set is pretty presitgious. Because the stealer not only gets to take the doggie's bone for that round, but also gets to be the doggie in the following round. Pretty exciting stuff.

So I did my best sneaking, stole the doggie's bone and waited as he guessed who the perpetrator might be. And then I walked up to the "dog house" for my turn.

But the seat of the dog house was wet. As were the pants of the last "doggie".

"Did you have an accident?" the teacher asked sympathetically.

"No" replied the doggie, "It was wet when I sat down."

Now, I may have been young enough to still display my age as "this many" with only one hand, but I knew something wasn't right there. After all the dress of the doggie who had preceded him was dry. And how could the dog house possibly have gotten wet in between her getting up and him sitting down?

"Liar!" I thought. "You better come clean or I'm going to have to sit in that!" I'm not sure why I figured they'd make me sit in the puddle if he didn't admit his little oopsy, but I was pretty scared.

Then he started crying, which is almost like admitting guilt. The chair was switched out for another untainted one and the game went on.

But 20 plus years later the memory still haunts me.