PeePle

I was standing in line today at the bank, playing Words With Friends on my phone, trying not trip over a wandering little girl who was moving all around me.  I looked up to see where and who her mother was.  The young Persian woman smiled at me and rolled her eyes.  She called the girl over to her.  The little girl, who was no older than three, slowly scooted her way across the floor, and made her way to the front of the line.  She stood up, and pushed in her stomach.  It was obvious that something was wrong.  I looked at her confused, did she have to fart?  Was she sick?  The woman was just as confused, and made it very clear to everyone in line that she wasn't the mother.


"What does your mother do with you?  Come on.  Come over here."  She tried to coax the little girl to stand next to her, but she didn't move.  She pressed her feet together and held her ground.  


"Pee pee."  The little girl touched her stomach like she was turning on the faucet, and pee began to shoot out from behind her.  The woman attempted to kneel down to her level.


"You have to go pee pee?  Just hold on."  Hold on?  It was a little too late to hold on.  The child was peeing right there in the middle of the bank aisle.


"No, pee pee."  She sounded desperate.  She opened her little legs and let the faucet run.  There was nothing the woman could do.  The pee flowed out and surrounded the little girl's feet in a puddle.  The woman reached into her large leopard print purse and pulled out a thin white fast food napkin and threw it down in the forming puddle.  


"Oh my gosh, what am I going to do with you?"  She said with no remorse.  The next teller opened up, and the women made her way down to the window, leaving the child standing in her pee.  A little boy, also waiting for his parent figure, came up to her and pointed at the pee.


"That's disgusting.  You're disgusting." He said what all of us adults were thinking.  That's nasty.  But the poor thing couldn't help herself, and there was no one there to give her guidance.  


She didn't react.  The little girl stood there in her pee puddle until the woman shouted to her in Farsi, and called her over.  The little girl skipped right over without saying a word.  Not a tear or a sorry, or any emotion of feeling bad.  She just stepped right through that pee and walked over, as if nothing happened.  


When the woman was done, she took the girl by the hand and walked out.  She did exactly what the little girl did, and acted like nothing had happened.  The bank employees were oblivious to the situation.  She didn't inform anyone of the possible slipping hazard that was created in the aisle.  Or offer to clean it up, like you would at a restaurant when you spill your water.  She walked away leaving the soaked tissue thin napkin in the puddle of kiddie pee. 

I peed.  Oh well.

Note: If your child, or the child you are in care of, pees in public, clean it up.  Or tell someone and at least offer to clean it.