FAMILY SWIM

Before taking my usual pre-swim shower, a small boy exited the pool on his father’s insistence and entered in the stall next to me, pulling his pants down around his ankles. What happened next is no surprise as I noticed from under the shower partition a small stream aimed directly at the drain. The child finishes up and walks out with pants still around ankles. Is there any difference in the urine of child and the urine of an adult, in that a child is encouraged to eliminate waste in places adults can not. If there is can someone please explain.

Reminds me of the time I worked in a Wherehouse Records store in Chico when I was going to college. I was in the back, working stock all day and hung-over as usual, eating lunch from some grease pit when a young boy entered the room with an exasperated look I’d seen dozens of times before. I pointed at the bathroom and went back to eating, not even bothering to look up when he left. After I was finished I went to wash my hands and noticed a small, plump turd in a puddle of urine next to the toilet. I continued washing my hands and called up to the front counter.

“Who let the kid go in the back to use the can?”

“I think Mike did.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“Hey Mike, Stewart wants to talk to you.”

(Pause)

“Hey Stew, what’s up?”

“Did you let that kid in the back?”

“Yeah, he had to go the bathroom pretty bad.”

“You should come back here and take a look at something.”

“Why, what is it?”

“It’s a surprise but I think you’re gonna like it.”

I pass Mike on the way out to cover his register while he investigates and wait a few minutes to call him in the back to see how things are going. He wasn’t particularly pleased but that was his problem. He himself had found an errant loaf on the carpeted floor in the video section, amazingly enough next to the store’s large floor-to-ceiling window. In each case, as in all cases like this, the question to ask is “Why?” But certainly not to expect any sort of answer.