Somebody's Watching You

In yesterdays post I mentioned that Maggie snagged a bag of bagels while shopping at Safeway with Steve and his friend Chris the other day. Steve went back and paid for them, of course. When they arrived home, we talked about all the other things we have found in Maggie's chair over the years. There have been hairbrushes, spoons, hair clips by the dozens, toys and anything else that was in reach.The bagels were in plain sight on the tray; but generally she grabs things, can't really hold onto them and they slip down into the side of her lap.

The best many years ago when  we went to buy Eddie some new eye glasses. Thanks to the genes he inherited from me, Eddie has worn glasses since kindergarten. He would need a new pair every year or so and we would go pick them out and order them. When he was in about the third grade we went to try a new place on West Portal. I walked in with Eddie and Tim and had Maggie in her tiny stroller/wheelchair. The kids were probably 8, 6 and 2.  The woman was waiting on someone else and made it clear from the moment we walked in that she did not like kids.

At all.

And especially not boys.

I ignored her. The boys definitely had their moments of being rambunctious, but this particular day was not one of them. They were calm and well behaved. As we waited, Eddie started trying on different pairs of glasses and carefully returning the ones he didn't like. The woman looked up and snapped, "They really shouldn't touch those." I responded, well, we're here to get him new glasses, so he has to try them on. (I pretended not to notice that Tim was also trying them on.)  She went back to her customer and after about a minute looked up and said something else snotty. That was enough. If I'm going to plop down money for a product, I think someone should at least be nice to us. I said, "Clearly you do not want our business, we will go somewhere else." She started to retract, but it was too late. The four of us filed out of the store in a very dignified manner. Haughty might be the best word for it.

As we headed back to the car, the boys and I were laughing at what a grump she was. Even Eddie said, And we were being GOOD! she should see us when we're BAD. I opened the doors and the boys hopped in. Maggie was so little then that she sat in the car seat and we folded her wheelchair in the back. I opened Maggies' door, readied the car seat, undid all her straps, lifted her into the car and strapped her into the car seat. I turned to fold up the wheelchair and saw them.

A lovely set of eyeglass frames sitting on the seat.

I winced. While the grumpy lady was yelling at my perfectly behaved sons, my tiny disabled daughter was stealing her blind.   I picked them up and showed the boys and their eyes bulged in surprise. I though of our dignified and haughty exit and winced again, knowing we had to return these.  Being the chicken that I am, I had one of the boys do it. (I thought it was Tim, but he doesn't remember.) Either Eddie or Tim took the frames, ran the two doors up to the store where the grumpy lady was still waiting on her customer, laid the frames on the counter and said, "My sister took these. Sorry." And then ran back to the car. We laughed our heads off.

We decided to go glasses shopping another day and we all went for ice cream.

Maggie didn't get any ice cream*, but she had the total respect of her brothers, that's for sure.




*no reward for stealing, but she also happens to be deathly allergic to dairy and can't eat by mouth anyway, so not sure it would have been a reward.

Edit - I just realized I wrote this story already about a year ago. Oh well, it's worth a re-tell.
 

Five Finger Discount

One day many years ago I took all three kids to the optometrist to purchase some new glasses for Eddie, who was then about 8 years old. We had to wait for the customer in front of us to finish so Eddie and Tim killed time trying on various frames and modeling them for each other. Some were contenders, others were outlandish and entertaining.

I could tell the woman in the store was annoyed, but I ignored her. The boys weren't causing any trouble.They weren't loud or annoying and they putting everything back were they found it. But she was irked and as a mom you can just tell when someone is not a kid person. She finally snapped at me, "they shouldn't touch those." I said very sweetly, "really? Because we're here to get him glasses and he's going to have to try them on to see what he wants." She relented, but I could tell she was still miffed. When it was our turn she was quite curt and I finally asked her if there was a problem. She told me she does not like children touching her stuff. I said, "Then perhaps we better go somewhere else." I wasn't mad but I certainly wasn't going to give her any business. We left in a very dignified way.

In those days Maggie sat in a car seat. I took her out of her tiny wheelchair to load her back into the car and to my embarrassment I saw that she had a pair of frames in her seat. While the woman was eyeing those evil little boys, their baby sister was stealing frames. So much for our dignity. Always the coward, I sent Eddie back onto the store with the pilfered frames. He left them on the counter and said, sorry, I guess my sister grabbed these. The boys and I laughed about that all the way home. Maggie was too little to know what had happened, but she was very entertained by our amusement.

Maybe we shouldn't have laughed so hard. Maggie turned into a little thief. There's no malice of course. It's just fun to snag things. Over the years there have been other things, such as hairbrushes, keys,etc that little Miss Hot Hands grabs out of pockets or off of any place she can reach. She used to hang out on the floor and would routinely take everything out of my purse, once ripping a $20 bill cleanly in half. If something small is missing you will likely find it her wheelchair. She grabs something and then drops it along the side of her legs where it stays until someone moves her. She finds it very entertaining when we say, "Excuse me madam, can you explain how this got here?" Mr. David, an aide in her class, snapped this shot of her holding his wallet. 

Now she may be moving up to grand theft. The other day the nurse handed me a ring she found under the chair in Maggie's room and said, "Here, Sally I think you dropped your wedding ring."  It is not mine, but it is definitely somebody's wedding set. At first I figured it belonged to one of the other nurses and just put it aside to ask each as their shift came around. It didn't belong to Josephine, Fely, Etoy, Lucy or Joy. I have a house keeper that comes every few weeks and she brings a helper. Surely this belonged to one of them. Nope. I asked a few friends who had been over at the house. Nope. The school nurse asked at school. Nope. I showed it to Maggie and asked if it was hers and she just grinned. 

We have no idea how it got into her room or how long it had been there. Obviously it could have come from anywhere. There are a lot of people in an out of this house. But my suspicions are on Maggie, aka Baby Face Nelson, the sweet looking little girl in the wheelchair who is above suspicion.

Did she take it from somebody? I have no idea. How in the world could she get someones wedding ring without them knowing it. If it was in somebody's pocket or on a counter I could see it, but who leaves their wedding ring lying around? Who else was close enough to Maggie for this to happen? Why isn't anyone missing a ring? It is a mystery, but given Maggie's checkered past, I can't help but wonder. If you are missing your wedding rings, please let me know. 

But you better hurry, Maggie keeps asking about the pawn shop on her dynavox.