I Have Discovered

That there is no sound on the face of this earth that I hate more than that of my child crying. It sends me into an unreasonable rage. I've been known to black-out and wild out at times, but it's nothing like the tight, acute, pointed fury that is caused by someone fucking with my child. I don't care who it is or how old they are, you fuck with my kid and I want to bury you. Deep. In a chasm meant for the faithless and the damned. I know other parents out there know exactly what I'm talking about.

When I was growing up my mother never let me "play-fight". She always used to admonish us with the old saying "it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt." She was invariably correct. My cousins, friends and I, being the hard-headed little fuckers that we were, used to play 'slaps' and 'five for flinching' and all sorts of other dumb shit until someone took a hard hit to heart and things would end up in a throw down. However it got broken up, be it cries of "mercy" or an adult stepping in, the two tusslers would drag their beaten asses into the house to face another round of walloping from the parents that just told our monkey asses to quit fucking around. To this day, at my ripe young age, I don't do that shit. I don't wrestle, pinch, play-fight or any of that shit because I know I'm gonna be the first on to get serious and want to beat the stank off a motherfucker for hitting my ass just a tad too hard. I raise my child the same way.

The kids were playing outside under the patio awning. I heard "stop." Then I heard "I'm not playing with you. Stop!" I got up from my chair to go put some adult force behind that 'listen-you-little-arse' stop. Before I made it out of the door the next thing I heard was a wail from my child that set my heart to racing because damned if I knew what was wrong. I plunge out of the door to find my child sitting on the floor, crying to wake the dead, holding the side of her face. I didn't want to know anything else besides "who?" And after she pointed, I proceeded to shake that little rockhead motherfucker like to fling a limb off. Had my momma not walked out and stopped me I think that little fucker would be a functioning quadriplegic. I loosed my death grip as the red-film over my eyes cleared and he ran squalling to his mama, who looked at him and said "I told you about that play-fighting shit. Shut up and go sit your ass down somewhere before I shake you."
Yup.

I'll be back. When I am thoroughly calm.