Raisinets

“Isaac stuffed too many Raisinets up his nose. I’m driving him to the ER now,” Jake’s wife Olivia said over the phone.

Jake had leaned his office chair backward to reach the phone on his desk. When Olivia spoke, he’d tipped over onto the floor. Not again! He thought.

Jake’s favorite candy was Raisinets, and there was always a box in the cupboard. Jake had thought his three year-old son would be safe from the candy if Jake stashed it somewhere Isaac wouldn’t be able to reach, but apparently not.

“I’ll meet you there,” he answered, picking himself up off the carpet.

There was no question as to whether or not he should leave work. He’d stayed late that day as it was. It was already past the time he should be home. Besides, it was Jake’s fault his son had started the habit, though his wife didn’t know it.

She’d been out that evening, leaving Jake alone with his son. After playing dinosaurs for hours, they’d eaten macaroni and cheese, with ice cream for dessert.

“Why you putting bugs in your ice keam?” Isaac had asked him as Jake sprinkled some Raisinets into his bowl.

“They make it chewier,” Jake replied.

Disgusted, Isaac scrunched his nose. “Where you get dem?”

Jake smiled. “These are special bugs that only comes from one place.” Reaching over, he pretended to pull a Raisinet out of his son’s nose. Then he ate it.

“Dey live in my nose!?”

“Yep, that’s their home.” Jake returned to his ice cream, hardly noticing Isaac watching him eat the “bugs”.

“Maybe they get homesick,” Isaac said in a small voice. Jake didn’t take the comment seriously. He thought it was just one of those things kids said that adults couldn’t understand.

Two weeks later, Jake had to work late. When he finally made it home, after Isaac was asleep, Olivia had the strangest story to tell.

“…and when I came over, the whole box of Raininets was spilled on the table! Then I saw that his nose was stretched weirdly. It took me ten minutes to get them out.”

Jake played the bemused father. “Huh, that’s strange. Maybe it’s one of those phases.”

The next day he’d talked to Isaac, making him promise to stop. But his talk hadn’t worked. As Jake drove to the hospital, he prayed his son would be alright. He also prayed Olivia hadn’t found out who’d given Isaac the bad habit.

When he arrived, Isaac was out of the hospital, and the Raisinets were out of his nose. Swooping up his son, Jake planted a kiss on the top of his head.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“Hey, buddy. What do I hear about you stuffing things up your nose? Didn’t we talk about that?”

“They were bugs, Dad. They wanted to go home. And I thought that if they could go home, you would come home, too.”

Jake couldn’t speak. Instead, he looked into his son’s liquid brown eyes, and then hugged him tightly.