Today started out like any other day. The sun was bright in the sky by 8:00am, and I was rearing to go and get my day started. Dave and I went to Starbucks, our typical Sunday morning tradition (yes, I know that today is Friday…just go with it) and had coffee and breakfast sandwiches before heading home to conquer our days errands.
Our son, Nikolaus, was up and showered and excited to get his school supplies. High school starts on Tuesday, and he wanted to get his binder, paper, pens and pencils before the selection was dwindled down to nearly nothing at the local Staples store. Dave and Nikolaus planned to go together this year, while I stayed behind (Yeah me!).
One of the items on my son’s school supply list was a padlock. He got this fancy-schmancy lock that has no numbers on it. Upon my first look at the device, I was sure that I’d forget the combination if it were mine, but Nikolaus was happy with it and that’s all that mattered.
Later in the day, Dave and I went to run some errands; take the dog to the groomer, stop by Guitar Center and the grocery store, before returning home for the evening.
Dave wanted to barbeque hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner, and I was happy to let him (no cooking dinner for me tonight). When dinner was ready, Dave went upstairs to Nikolaus’ bedroom to let him know it was ready for consumption. Fifteen and a half year old boys are eating machines, and our son is no exception to this rule. However, tonight he waived his dad away and said he’d be down in a while. Dave and I had a nice meal together, one that was much quieter than most and without our son. After which, I retreated to our bedroom to continue reading a book I had begun (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I highly recommend it.), and Dave planted himself in front of the television.
When Nikolaus was ready to make an appearance, I heard him open his bedroom door and glanced up for a moment to see him walking swiftly by our bedroom, giving me what I thought was a glaring look. Teenagers are moody, and this didn’t faze me in the least little bit. I continued reading and about 10 minutes later, I heard a knock at the front door.
I realized that no one was in the house when the knock occurred for a second time. The dog didn’t bark, and no one was running to get to the door to avoid having a parent answer it, which was likely to cause some embarrassment for the teenager in the house. I put my Kindle down, and made my way to the front door.
“Hi, is Nick here?” said a pleasant girl with long blonde hair. Her dad and little sister were waiting outside, and it looked like Nikolaus had plans for an evening date. I checked around the house, and Dave, Nikolaus and the dog were nowhere to be found. I went to get my cell phone, thinking that maybe Nikolaus had forgotten that she was coming, to text him of her arrival. As I was writing the text, another girl (brunette) showed up. (This is where things get a little awkward.)
The girls said hello to one another, and girl #1 (the blonde) asked if girl #2 (the brunette) was looking for Nick. Girl #2 said that she had come over to see Nick’s ear, and girl #1 said that she had come over for the same reason. The thought of my son’s ear tearing in half (he has small gauges, one in each ear) ran through my head, and I frantically tried to get my son or husband on their cell phones. If Dave has taken Nikolaus to the hospital without telling me, I was going to be furious.
I was unsuccessful at getting either of them on the phone, and told both girls that I didn’t know where Nick had gone. Neither seemed fazed by this, and they left quietly (Phew! I thought for sure I was going to have a girl-fight in my house.). I returned to my book, and hoped that nothing serious had happened to my son.
A few minutes later, I heard the garage door open, and the boys were back home. I went to the top of the stairs and yelled out for Dave and Nikolaus, asking where they had gone. Nikolaus walked up the stairs with a smile on his face and said “Nowhere.” I asked him again, and this time he turned to me and said “Alright, but you can’t get mad”, which always means that I’ll be mad about something he’s done.
Nikolaus reached into his pocket and pulled out the padlock that he and Dave had bought earlier in the day to show me that it was broken in two. “What happened?” I questioned as I looked down at my husband who was standing at the bottom of the stairs and was laughing almost uncontrollably. Dave managed to spit out “he got it stuck on his ear” between breaths of laughter. “You did what?” I said as my own laughter began.
Dave had taken Nikolaus to the local fire station just three blocks from our house, to have it pried open. When they arrived at the fire station, a firewoman in her mid 40’s answered the door, followed by two other firemen. Her first question was “how old are you?” which was followed by “what were you thinking?”. The firemen laid my son on the ground, and proceeded to cut the padlock off of his ear which had gotten stuck in one of his gauges, thus the reason he wasn’t able to get it off.
Here’s Nick with the padlock stuck on his ear.
Here’s the padlock after it was cut-off by the firemen.
And here is a shot of the gauge that it got stuck on, and is still stuck on.
Yep. My son is brilliant.
