Family Memory (XXIV) – The Kid Walking Home from Sacred Heart school

College always lets out before grade schools and always goes back after. I was still home in January, 1987, before heading back for the second half of my sophomore year. Mom was at work and my sister was at high school–and then doing whatever with her friends afterwards.

I was loafing with plans for the evening (as always) with friends before they, too, returned to school. So I was sitting in a recliner reading when there was a noise out the front window of the living room (northwest side of the house). I wasn’t sure what it was–it was just unusual that there’d be something in the bushes there–too early for birds, no woofing so it wasn’t a dog, or anything like that. I turned to look and….

It was an 8 year old boy walking home from Sacred Heart school up the street. He was facing the house’s bricks, his back to the street. He had his pants down to his ankles, his winter coat unzipped. He was taking a whizz against our house. Now, in hindsight, he wasn’t trying to cause trouble–and sometimes, you gotta go, you gotta go…so MAYBE I should have just let him do his thing, return to his friend out on the street’s sidewalk, and go about the rest of his afternoon. Maybe.

Should Have.

Didn’t.

I stood up, staring at the kid’s side, and I knocked on the window. Tap, tap, tap. The kid looked up, not realizing anyone was home, and his eyes bugged out Looney Tunes style and he took off for the street, jacket still undone, pants still down with him struggling to pull them up, getting them pretty muddy as he skedaddled from our yard. Out on the sidewalk, he got them pulled up all the way, never looked at the house, and as soon as the ‘WALK’ sign went on, ran across the street and on his way.

I wonder if the kid ever urinated in public in college or did something like that again somewhere else–or if he always looked for windows after that point…and I wonder, if he’s still in Davenport, if he passes the house, does he still remember that day with a bit of laughter?