A couple of people asked me whose life I'd saved as a result of this post.We were at Bard's sixteenth birthday dance, with commotion and music and laughing going on everywhere. Every once in a while, I'd look around to find that The Baby was missing. I'd go searching for her, and she'd be down in the basement of the grange hall, alone, munching on the chips or celery that were set out for the dinner after the dance.
Towards the end of the dance, I headed downstairs to get the food set out. I was chatting with another woman when I heard a strange strangling sound. I looked down, and there was The Baby, her eyes bulging, her lips blue, choking on some unknown object. I grabbed her and slammed my fist hard into her back, and out popped a round, juicy grape tomato. She sputtered, breathed and then wailed. And then I held her tight, keeping an incredibly close eye on her from then on.
Even now.
I'm so grateful that I was there. I had thought that she'd been upstairs with Bo at that point, and I think of all of the times that she had snuck downstairs to nibble when no one else had been there.
Still gives me chills.
