…..took a little over a week to piece together this story….
Last weekend I went upstairs and smelled something burning…..it seemed strongest coming from Matthew’s room. Called Suzanne upstairs; she also smells it and we begin a frantic search to figure out what’s going on. Grab the ladder and check out the attic; no smell up there (this did lead to the boys getting one of their fondest wishes though…a chance to look up into the attic. Kind of boring overall though).
This happens as we’re about to leave for soccer….corner the boys and ask them very pointedly if they’ve done everything and explain that a lie here could come be devastating…we’d come back and the house would be burned down and dogs would be dead. No explanations forthcoming from Fric and Frac…
We shut off the ceiling fan and all the other electronics in Matthew’s room and head out….come home, smell is gone, not to return during the week at all. Maybe it did waft in from outside, but, it sure seems funny…..
Today, Suzanne is cleaning upstairs and notices that the lighter (one of those fire-starter thingies) that she uses for candles is missing…again, we corner the boys and ask them if they know what happened to it. Here, we get an answer…Christopher (who always seems to know where everything is) goes upstairs and promptly brings it down to Mom.
“Where was it Christopher?”
“In Matthew’s room.”
Again, ask Matthew if there’s anything that he’d like to tell us….not very forthcoming. Mom finally (after Dad leaves the room) coerces Matthew to finally spill the beans. He had collected the lighter and taken it to his room…and used it start a small fire on the fabric clothes-hanging storage unit in his room….it caught on fire, he blew on it(!) to put it out and finally used a rag or something to stop the festivities.
There’s more than a few “teaching” moments that went on after all the facts came together today…..it’s not even the fire that’s the worst of it, it’s the lying and not coming clean when the end result (house burned, pets dead) are clearly laid out in front of him (don’t think Christopher knew much about this….).
Sigh.
