Poor little Muffin Face - confessions of a middle child.

It's Friday. To celebrate lets have story from Muffin Face's past.

I was in the 3rd grade. We lived for a year in Allentown PA. Yucky place really. We had moved from TX and I was probably reading /writing at a 1st grade level (if that). I know, not much has changed in that department. Anyway. I don't have tons of Allentown memories because we were only there a year and it was a long time ago. We lived in a big old house that my mother probably spent the entire year re-decorating. In the lowest level of the house were two huge rooms. One was my bedroom and the other side was a playroom. in between these two rooms was a cedar closet that we were all scared of. My mother told us if we went in there and shut the door we would die. She was always saying funny things like that.

So the second level of the house was a living room, dining room, kitchen - and so on. The third level of the house was were the rest of the family had their bedrooms. Some nights I stayed in my brothers lower bunk bed so I wasn't so far away from everyone. But most times I was probably very content in my own far away space.

My sisters room was all pink. I was always a little jealous of that. One day she was given a brand new ink blotter. The next day someone wrote "This is Junk" on her perfect new pink ink blotter.

I wouldn't have known about this except for the spanking I received for writing it. I remember not being very surprised that I was being punished. Odds were I had done something to deserve it, right? But it was confusing none-the-less. Just what had I done this time?

Later that night my little brother (who was in Kindergarten at the time) looked at my parents and confessed that he was the one who wrote on the ink blotter.

I sat back and waited for my parents to shower me with apology's and maybe even presents. I was sure they felt just terrible. I was prepared to be gracious and tell them that, while the pain was palpable, I was a big enough person to let this go. I sat there in eager anticipation. My parents looked at each other in shock and amazement until finally they looked at my brother, tears in their eyes, and said "We had no idea you could write! And what lovely penmanship. We are so proud of you. "

This is a true story.