That hole in the basement floor

 

My mother:  “I know what really happened.”

Me:  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I told you, there was a frog that was hurt really bad and bled all over.”

The End.

 

Well, not really.  There was more, but this came first.  What happened began the night before.  I believe it was the summer before my 7th or 8th grade year.  My bedroom was in the our basement, which was semi-finished.  The laundry room was separated from my room by a primitive wall.  Long before this incident, I had developed the habit of using the laundry room floor drain was a makeshift pee-hole. 

Yes, I peed down the hole.

Ususally this was only at night when I didn’t feel like going all the way upstairs to use the bathroom.  I suppose I was inspired by having peed outside plenty of times.  I grew up in the country, afterall.

On the night in question, I remember awaking especially groggy.  I didn’t bother to turn any lights on and I had to pee.  I felt my way into the laundry room and did my deed.  Afterwards, I returned to bed. 

The next morning, I realized that I had started my period at some point during the night.  I went about the business of taking my sheets and blankets off of my bed to be washed and put them in my clothes hamper, and proceeded upstairs to start the day.

Well, at some point, I returned downstairs and discovered a bloody trail along the concrete floor from my bedroom leading to the drain hole.  I panicked and quickly cleaned up this mess. 

Apparently, my mother had seen the trail before I had. 

She never had any talks about sexual things with me in a direct manner.  She definitely had not been aware that I was using her laundry room floor as a potty. 

However, until later that day, I did not realize she had seen the trail.  Basically, she asked me what had happened, I declared ignorance of what she was talking about, and then blamed the mess on an injured frog (I had been bring toads and frogs into the basement for years–yes, I realize this is strange, too!)

And the matter was never spoken about again.

This day is something I think of quite often for some reason.

~ by silvernightchild on August 21, 2007.