Now I Know

I don't know why I got to thinking about this, but when Middle Munchkin was about 8, she walked into the room one day holding the towel bar from the bathroom in her hand. She just handed it to me and said, "This fell off the wall," and turned around and left. She never offered any other explanation. It just fell off.

When I went to investigate, I found about a 4 x 6 inch hole in the wall where the anchor of the towel bar had pulled away the drywall and everything. The walls in the bathroom had paper on them, and the paper had ripped about a foot down the wall. I was able to patch it up with drywall compound, but I never tried to rehang the towel bar.

So I was thinking about this incident the other day and I said to Middle Munchkin. "Do you remember when the towel bar fell off the wall when we lived in Topeka?" She got the funniest look on her face. She kind of paled and her eyes got all wide. It took her a few moments to say, "Yes."

"So, what were you doing?" I asked. I always imagined it was some sort of gymnastics move, and I've pictured her hanging upside down from the bar or trying to sit on it."

"It just fell," she said.

"Oh come on," I urged. "It's not like you're going to get in trouble. I just never could quite visualize what you must have been doing and I'm curious."

"I used to hang from the bar and see how high I could get my feet on the wall," she said.

Now I know, and I still laugh each time I think about the look on her face when she handed me that towel bar.