Growing Pains

I guess it was not Scottie's day. We did not know if something had happened, or if Scottie was just feeling his age. After all, how grown up is a four-year-old supposed to act? But to really understand what happened, let us start at the beginning.

Mary and I had invited our nephew, Scottie, over for his usual Sunday supper. We always looked forward to having him because he was a neat little boy. On this particular evening, he arrived on time as usual. However, instead of hugs and kisses, Scottie just pushed past us and headed for the sofa. I had to take a second look to make sure this was the right little boy.

While we waited for the roast chicken—Scottie's favorite—to finish cooking, we sat on the sofa talking. Right in the middle of one of my sentences, Scottie said suddenly, "Hey, Uncle Arnold, I want to play my record." The conversation came to a halt. A minute later, the record player was on as loud as it could go with "Disco Duck". Scottie was dancing and singing in the middle of the room. Mary was talking to me, but I could not hear a thing she was saying. I was puzzled that I let the matter pass with only a slight comment.

Soon dinner was served. We sat down, lit the candles, and started to eat. Scottie usually would be the first to start eating, but tonight he just sat there and stared at me. "Aren't you hungry?" I asked. "Yes," replied Scottie. "Then aren't you going to eat?" "No, I'm not," he answered. "It's your favorite dinner," said my wife. "I don't want to eat," answered Scottie. Paying no attention to his strange behavior for the moment, I said, "Okay, if you don't want to eat, you don't have to eat. You may sit and keep us company until we finish our delicious meal." As we continued our dinner, Scottie's face looked confused and uncertain.

After we finished dinner, we began clearing away the dishes, leaving Scottie to sit there with that look of disappointment on his little face. When I removed the dish containing the roast beef, it was more than he could bear. He stood up and threw his napkin across the table. Unfortunately, it hit one of the candles and caught fire. I do not know who cried out the loudest, myself or Scottie. We both stood there with a look of horror on our faces. I took the napkin and put it out. Scottie started crying. "I'm sorry," he said. "I was just trying to be Dennis. My teacher read us the book about Dennis the Menace, and we thought all the things he did were so funny. But they are not funny when I do them. I don't want to be Dennis any more." We were glad that he was not Dennis any more, just our little Scottie.