The night came crashing down in the form of a ceiling fan blade still attached to its metal arm. A child followed screaming hysterically. Amidst the tears and pleas for forgiveness he managed to give this account:
He was snug in his loft bed when he realized that his clothes were still on. He did what any five year old child would do; he pulled off his shirt and shorts and tossed them to the ground. Only, the shorts never landed. He looked out towards the ceiling fan, which was no longer rotating but instead whirring angrily. There he found his shorts wedged between a blade and the base. He watched this curiously, wondering first how it happened and then what would happen next. There was a sound like metal tearing and the fan blade became unmoored from the fan. It fell to the ground with a loud thunk! The boy, now realizing the terrible thing he’d done, began to panic. He started to cry. He ran towards my room screaming, “It was an accident!”
I joined the story here. At first I thought he took a life given how panicked he was. Turns out he thought he took his own life, or that I would take it at the tail end of a glorious beating sure to find me incarcerated or worse. The thunk was the first I heard of the trouble. I followed him back to the room asking what happened. When I saw the fan his shrill cries for mercy leapt three octaves.
I did not beat the child with the fan blade as he suspected. The loss of the $100 fan made me sad, but seeing his condition was punishment enough for the atrocity. Of course, I let him know he was on probation. One slip up and punishment will reign. As for the fan, we don’t have a replacement. Their room is directly above the garage and hot enough that the fan was the only thing keeping them cool at night.
I’m still looking for ways to cool that space down.
Some Thoughts: