Susan Senator

The other day Ben went skateboarding for the first time. He is a very indoorsy type, sporting pale white skin until the week we go to the Cape, where he then turns a delicious mocha brown.

Ben hates the helmet, because he hates the way he looks in it. What can I say to him to make him feel better? I hate the way I look in mine, too! Like a long-faced bug, with stupid fat curls spewing out the back. Ben is so much like me, that often I do not know what to say to help him without being a Giant Hypocrite, as he says.

So he went skateboarding because he learned it in gym class. I sat outside with my laptop (Twilight Princess). He wanted me to watch, but being the obsessive nutcase I am, I watched only with one eye.

Then Ben fell. He went flying as you only can from a skateboard that shoots out from under you. I missed it entirely, fool that I am. He came walking towards me, smouldering. "I am really glad I was wearing this helmet," he said.

"Oh my God! You fell -- on your head? !" I gasped. "Let's get ice. Let me kiss it. Oh, oh, oh!" Oh, oh, my B. Well, I couldn't have stopped him from falling even if I had been standing there, right? Thank God he was wearing that helmet.

That helmet is now my favorite thing in the entire house.