The Trust of a Child

The family reunion is over. It wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, although I was the only one from my generation of immediate family there (meaning none of my cousins came). While I was walking to the house, my mom's cousin's son (I think I figured out that he would be my second cousin once removed, but I am not exactly sure) came up to me because he had a splinter in his finger. We had never met and even today had not officially been introduced, meaning he didn't know my name but I was at the same party as him and I was an adult (scary thought), so I was a person he could trust to help him. Anyway, after evaluating the finger to figure out what the splinter damage was, I took him up to the house to first wash his finger. Along the way, he would ask questions like "Will the water get the splinter out?" After washing his hand, I realized it was a serious splinter, so then we had to go in search of tweezers. Have I mentioned yet that I have never removed a splinter before, let alone from a five year old's finger. So, we get the tweezers and he's being a real trooper just sitting there letting me try to get the splinter out. As I am "operating" he continues to ask questions about splinters and how to get them out. I got all but a little bit of the splinter before I started hurting him, but I wasn't worried because I could tell it was near the surface. So, we put some neosporin and a bandaid on. To which he of course asked "will this get the splinter out?" And I very convincingly responded, "Of course!" The point of this story...kids are so trusting. And he was so cute!

Oh, and just for the record, no head pats or pinched cheeks. But two people did say, "I haven't seen you since you were this little" But I forgave them because it was probably true!