Next time? Listen!

Offspring has a friend who comes over after school every day.  Every. Day.  I like her, she is a delightful little girl, so I don't mind in the slightest (but I am going to negotiate with her family over taking her as a tax deduction on my taxes).  She and Offspring ride their bikes here every day, and then we walk her home later.  On Monday, Wheeler was up and so we all went.  Offspring was on roller blades, I had Dog and the friend rode her bike.  We dropped her at her door and turned to walk back home (well, half of us, only Dog and I were technically walking).  I had ahold of Offspring hand, with Dog's leash in my other hand. 

About a block later, I could hear Wheeler saying something, a one syllable word of some sort, but I couldn't understand him.  He can't speak terribly loud because his injury is high enough that it compromises his lung function and hence he can't shout very well.  So I heard "ruudub .... ruuubud .... duuub ... duuug...." ... I finally understood that he was saying - "DOG!".  Why, you ask?  There was a tiny dog in the yard we were walking by and if Dog sees another dog, he goes bonkers.  Wheeler, seeing the potential for disaster involved with me, a leash, and a kid on roller blades, was wisely trying to warn me. 

Unfortunately it was too late.  Dog spied little dog and lunged towards it.  That nearly pulled my left arm out of my socket (thankfully, this was my uninjured shoulder), which pulled Offspring on his blades.  Then Dog decided to prance in an excited circle, so my arm wrenched the other arm,  Offspring started twirling the other way and Dog just kept going such that we all made two complete revolutions.  The entire time I just kept thinking that one or more of us was going to break one or more bones.  And Dog was barking and prancing and jumping like a wild animal.  I kept trying to let go of Offspring's hand so he could skate safely away, but he had a death grip on me and I never found a good chance to let him go anyway. 

Normally this story would have ended in a trip to the hospital (or minimally a destroyed pair of pants or dropping my phone), but it didn't.  It ended with me finally gaining control of Dog, then we all burst into hysterical laughter.  Wheeler was watching the whole thing with his mouth agape, wondering how the hell we all survived unscathed.

Next time, I'll pay attention more the first time Wheeler says something!