Our son had difficulty falling asleep. I was worn out from being called back to his room and invited him to sit by me while I read in bed. He leaped into our room. I had to shower. By the time I came out there was a teary-eyed boy standing at the bathroom door bearing something that looked like a dead mouse.
He started to cry and I couldn't understand him. He placed the lifeless item in my hand while sobbing. It was a finger puppet of a wolverine. About 5 inches long. He has a squirrel, chipmunk, otter and a few others from this set. It's how he spends his birthday money. The wolverine had a bit of white showing through his back and the room smelled of melted plastic.
My first concern was the fire was still burning somewhere - it was so fresh smelling. My next concern was that he could have been seriously burned if HE had touched it. He composed himself a bit more and through the kid sob breathing he told me he touched the wolverine to the halogen light bulb on Tom's nightstand. This is one of those contemporary designer swing arm type of night light with the bulb exposed underneath. For 20 years, it has not been used in any experiments. Now, the singed remains of the wolverine's back were adhering and crisping.
Because I wanted to drive the danger home, I told him to go tell his dad. He was sobbing out of fear daddy would be mad. Tom held him, consoled him, assuring him he would not be in trouble for telling the truth. After about 10 minutes he calmed down enough to tell about his "bad decision."
During this time, I broke out the sewing kit in my room and wolverine underwent some reconstructive surgery. He has a bit of a stiff scar under there, but if you didn't know he was part of an experiment, you wouldn't notice.
We went back to our room, he joined me while I read a chapter of, "Sound of Wings" by Mary S. Lovell. He fell asleep hearing about Amelia Earhart.
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