Accidents can be the most fun
It was a super hero kind of day.
But I walked into the dusty barn not feeling much like Superman, the end of Thanksgiving break being way too filled with Kryptonite. Or the Flash, because I'd had a big breakfast. Or Batman, because I'd vanquished the Joker and Two-Face yesterday. What would Batman have to do after that? Sit around Wayne Manor in his underwear?
I stuck the big plastic flashlight under my arm and started up the ladder toward the loft. Today, I was Green Lantern. He wore a glowing ring that made him fly and my breakfast of Sugar Frosted Flakes gave me one of those in a sealed foil bag. Well, the ring didn't glow and it was plastic, but at least it was a ring. All I had to do was charge my ring in the magic lantern and ...
Suddenly the flashlight was in pieces.
Not intentional pieces, of course. I was a good kid. But, halfway up the ladder, the quart-jar-sized flashlight slipped from under my arm and gravity turned it from a magic comic book lantern into the plot of a Brady Bunch episode.
"Oh, golly, Marsha. I dropped the flashlight. Gee, I think I broke it."
"Shut up, Jan," Marsha hissed. "Dad's been drinking."
I watched it fall through the dusty sunlight that crept into the barn and shatter on the rusted plow that, to my 8-year-old mind, had always been there. And it happened in slow motion, just like on TV.
"Gosh darn it," I cursed, looking at the bits of flashlight scattered on the dirt floor of the barn. Was I upset? Sure, it was my flashlight.
I climbed down the ladder, picked up the pieces, sneaked in the back door of the farm house and went to my room.
When you're a kid, there are four emotions: 1) the innocent, conditionless joy people eventually forget exists; 2) embarrassment; 3) anger; and 4) complete, Frankenstein monster movie fear of your parents.
Sitting in my room, looking at the wires that connected the bulb with the batteries, I was vaguely aware of No. 4, expecting Dad to come through the closed door with a torch and pitchfork at any time. But, mostly, I was just curious.
Light. Wires. Batteries. I touched them all together and the bare light bulb came to life.
Then all fear left me. I was curious.
I pulled a half-used roll of electrical tape and a pocket knife Mom didn't know about from a drawer and started cutting. The light taped nicely to the ring. I ran the wires down my sleeve and secured the electrical-taped batteries onto my arm with rubber bands. A bare wire taped to my middle finger and one taped to palm completed the circuit and, when I made a fist, the Green Lantern had a glowing ring.
I hid the rest of the broken flashlight under my bed next to a plate with a fossilized half-eaten sandwich and ran back out to the barn. Green Lantern had some villains to vanquish.
Yeah, curiosity and creativity are good for a kid. We should let them break more stuff.
