Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Man in Red



He's so brave. Twelve years old, standing at the side of the busy highway, waiting for his school bus. Red from head to toes.

Sam looks like an alien. A martian who wears headphones, sneakers and a backpack. Underneath the typical schoolyard paraphernalia he's wearing a red Morphsuit. Don't worry if you've never heard of Morphsuits. I hadn't heard of them either until Sam began saying his young life would be meaningless without one.

"What do you do with a Morphsuit?" I asked.

"You run around and stuff," Sam replied. "Oh I HAVE to have one. HAVE to. Puhleeese???"

You can imagine the drama. But can you imagine the suit? Picture yourself wearing pantyhose over your head and you get the idea. It's a one-piece, flimsy, body-hugging suit that I wouldn't wear for all the tea in China. I said to my kids yesterday that, if I had a white one, I'd look like the Michelin Man.

On Sam it's not so bad. He's skinny as a rake and the suit does show off his cute little rear end. And frankly I don't care if he wears it around home all day long but he insisted on wearing it to school today. I told him it wasn't a good idea. Kids would tease him. The teacher might give him grief. I mean, you know school these days – it's hard enough surviving the chalkboard jungle  without wearing a skintight red suit.

I gave him all the pros and cons (mostly cons) but let him make his own decision.

So there he stands, waiting for the bus. He's excited, I can tell, bouncing up on his toes, neon red head turned towards the hill over which the school bus will come. He hears the bus coming, turns out and waves a red hand at me and yells, "Love you!"

"Love you, too!" I say. "Have fun!"

He nods. The bus slows to a rumbly stop. The safety arm comes out, Sam's red head looks both ways and he crosses the road.

It's an hour later I can't help wonder how his day is going. Are the kids laughing with him or at him? Is he still wearing the suit? I made him pack other clothes just in case.

I have a lot of things to do today and I should get doing them. Instead, I sip on my cold coffee and think about my favourite martian. My brave little alien. My man in red.

19 comments:

  1. Oh Boy...I hope it goes well for him. Kids can be so cruel.

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  2. Cathy, you are the coolest of Kool-aid moms. Sam is brave. I hope his school chums laughed with him!

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  3. Sam is like my little Frankie girl. She wears either (1) her brown Jedi cape almost everywhere we go or (2) Thigh high purple boots, her purple Bat-girl t-shirt and matching purple cape. Her sisters want to die of embarrassment just being related to her. But she doesn't really care what anyone thinks, and that is golden in my book. I will always be there to support and encourage her creative sense of self. Therefore, I say, rock that red suit Sam!!

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  4. Red crayons unite! I hope he has an awesome day!

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  5. He'll have a great day. He's a little persuader. The entire class will tell respective parents their life will be meaningless without a morph suit. i wonder what the teacher will say, though.

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  6. I bet he'll be the coolest kid in school and all the other kids will go home and beg their moms for one too.

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  7. Good for him!
    You should see the hat my son wears to school.

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  8. If you haven't got a call yet, despite the fact he took spare clothes, then I'd say he's doing all right.

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  9. I love this he is not a follower but a leader. We have to have leaders he will be fine. An artist for sure.:) B

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  10. That is a riot!!! So? You must tell us how his day went! How the heck does he see out of it? I saw the green guys at the Canucks games back when I lived out west. Something tells me it wouldn't fly here in the states. They suspend kids for eating their pop tarts into what looks like the shape of a gun (I thought it was Idaho to be honest).....

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  11. Um, if his school is like ours he'll fit right in. Weird, I know. But the kids love them for some reason. While I was picking up Youngest yesterday I saw a little girl leave in a full Elvis costume... wig and all. It was awesome.

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  12. Awesome! Go Sam! Please, please, please, give us an update on this hilariously heartfelt post. It must make you proud to know you're raising a kiddo who isn't afraid to do his thing with confidence. :)

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  13. I hope that all Sam's classmates are home pestering their mama's for a morphsuit of their own.
    And I am completely unsurprised to find out that your boy is a courageous individual.
    Follow-up post please. Pretty please.

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  14. Aww. So cool that you let him wear it. How did it go?
    tm

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  15. My son came home from college the other day and said, "When I was in grade school...why did you let me wear the Beetleborg pendant, tuck my shirts into my jeans, and wear the bright red tennis shoes?"

    I told him because he wanted to. He said as a parent it was my job to stop him from doing dumb things. I told him no, it was my job to teach him to think for himself so he didn't become part of the brainless masses who do anal alcohol shots (really creepy...glad no one in my generation thought of it!) because someone else tells them it's cool.

    He agreed.

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  16. Sam ROCKS. (And so do you.:) xo!

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  17. This was adorable! And he's so brave to want his costume, no matter what it looks like to other people.

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  18. I'm pretty sure now that I've seen someone wearing a suit like this at some point....

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