>>21442832please excuse any errors in usage. i'll fix them later.
>Clumsy. Especially in those days. I’m told she fell out of her chair almost every single day in that class and I can easily believe it because at that same time she was spilling her milk almost every single night as well and when I first took her fishing she fell in twice, and I had to wrap her in a towel while I dried her things by the campfire because we had only packed two days worth of clothes. She might well have fallen in a third time, only I didn’t let her near the water again that night. even when she got older the sight of an untied shoelace on her foot never stopped making my hands spring up into the position one might adopt trying to catch a mouse bare handed. I remember a few instances of her tripping mid sentence, falling flat on her chin, and resuming what she had been saying as if she had no more than hiccuped. I remember trying and failing to hide the concern in my face. before a certain age kids don't seem to know exactly what hurts them, somehow, and if you don't do anything to give away that they've just had a pretty nasty spill they'll never clue into it. I once heard a mother of eight put it pretty well. she said, "they bounce, you know".>Her love of nature seemed to be linked to her clumsiness, to me at least. if she were more squeamish about dirt maybe she would have stepped a little more mindfully. As it was, it made not a lick of difference to ash whether it got into her shoes, into her pockets, under her nails, in her hair, behind her ears, anywhere. she spat dirt from her mouth with gusto and a smile. please keep an eye out for a book called "Excision".
