Between a Rock and a Hard Place

The calls come when you least expect them.

My work day had gotten off to a good start. Coffee was hot and in the mug, desktop computer was booted up, and I'd delved into the glut of emails waiting to be dealt with. The sun was out and it was going to be a good Friday.

The phone rang and I turned to answer it, when I noticed an unfamiliar number was displayed on the screen.

"Mr. B-----?" "Yes." "Hi, this is Ms. Allen from your daughter's preschool class."

Gulp. It was about Dos.

Meaning, what I was about to hear next could literally be anything.

"Your daughter seems to have something stuck in her ear."

"Oh, really." I was actually relieved. I consider myself a pretty handy solver of kid problems, and on the scale of 1 to 10, this seemed relatively minor.

After a brief conversation, I agreed to come down and take a look. The twenty-minute drive passed quickly, and I arrived at the school expecting to find Dos comfortably resting in a nurse's office or something.

"She's out there," the teacher pointed, referencing the playground equipment.

As Dos walked over, she casually said hello, and appeared to want to resume playing. I implored her to come over, expecting that my Dad skills were about to be revealed, and that would be that. I poked my finger into her ear gently, searching for the elusive object. My finger abruptly ran into the thing, much deeper than I had originally imagined. It was like running into a cement barrier.

It was clearly a rock. And it clearly wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

----------------------------

On the ride to the pediatrician, I ventured to look in the rearview mirror and ask the meaning of this latest escapade.

It appeared that Dos had a close friend with a hearing aid. Dos had simply wanted to fit in - and somehow a piece of pea gravel from the playground had seemed to be the best fit for this task.

At the doctor's office, a team of nurses and staff marched in who, along with myself, held Dos down while we wrestled to eject the foreign object from her ear with a long menacing tool.

After what seemed like forever to all of us, the stone popped from ear like a cannon, we all had a nervous laugh—and then they turned and went back to business.

Dos strode out to the car - lollipop in hand - enduring one last lecture from me to find other ways to fit in at school.