My six-year-old granddaughter, Caitlynd, and I stopped at a Tim Horton's donut
shop for a blueberry muffin. As we were going out the door, a young teenage boy
was coming in.
This young man had no hair on the sides of his head and tuft of blue spiked hair
on top of it. One of his nostrils was pierced, and attached to the hoop that ran
through the hole, was a chain that draped across his face and attached to a ring
he was wearing in his ear. He held a skateboard under one arm and a basketball
under the other.
Caitlynd, who was walking ahead of me, stopped in her tracks when she saw the
teen. I thought he'd scared the dickens out of her and she'd frozen on the spot.
I was wrong.
My GrandAngel backed up against the door and opened it as wide as it would go.
Now I was face to face with the young man. I stepped aside and let him pass. His
gracious response was a kind, "Thank you very much".
On our way to the car, I commended Caitlynd for her manners in holding open the
door for the young man. She didn't seem to be troubled by his appearance but I
wanted to make sure. If a grandmotherly talk about freedom of self expression
and allowing people their differences was in order, I wanted to be ready.
As it turned out, the person who needed the talk was me. The only thing Caitlynd
noticed about the teen, was the fact that his arms were full. "He woulda' had a
hard time to open the door."
I saw the partially shaved head, the tuft of spiked hair, the piercings and the
chain. She saw a person carrying something under each arm and heading toward a
door.
In the future, I hope to get down on her level and raise my sights.
Contact the author for permission to reprint this story.
© 2000 Terri McPherson
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
tmcphers@mnsi.net
Terri lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She has two wonderful children,
six-year-old GrandAngel and a terrific husband. She works as a Writer / Web
Designer / Production Assistant for a local production company and teaches
advanced clogging classes for the Border City Cloggers
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