For the first time in 13 years I came home to see my son sporting a shiner. And as much as I wanted to fuss, I couldn't...I wouldn't dare insult my son. Just waited for him to show it to me and tell me what really happened. Oh, I so wanted to rush him, to ask him to give me a blow-by-blow account but I kept my lips sealed. I wanted to kiss it and make it well, but I stopped at just a touch at his cheek while asking if it hurts. His teammate was telling him to make excuses for what happened and he answered with: Why should I? My mom knows I play soccer and she has always said this is part and parcel of the sport. I remember seeing Fernando Torres of Liverpool once sporting a black-eye, too.
Well yes so I always say that…he plays basketball and soccer, which are both contact team sports albeit limited-contact - meaning there are rules that specifically prevent intentional or unintentional contact between players and penalties can be incurred when it happens. I constantly remind him of that so he is prepared that this can happen, but should be avoided at all cost. Seeing him with a swollen though not yet a black-eye made me realize that I wasn't totally prepared to see him with one. All I could think of was how painful it could have been or worse, if it actually got broken, just like what happens in boxing. I can only imagine how Aling Dionisia feels when watching Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao getting himself hit in the boxing ring.
Forgive me for the melodrama, but he is my only son and I have tried my very best to ensure that he is kept away from harm’s way without cosseting or mollycoddling him. As he has told me often enough, he is no longer a baby. Spent part of the night looking at him while he was sleeping and though I may have said my poor baby several times (which btw I couldn't say while he was awake) it also made me realize that he really is grown-up. Going over his story made me realize he kept the story short and succinct, most likely without the gory details, but more on what the nurse said to do – the ice pack on the first night and hot compress on the next day. Maybe he didn't want to worry me too or to dwell on it much. Like I said…he really is now grown-up.
Today I could help but ask if we needed to see his doctor and he said he didn't need to. He had his sunglasses to cover the ugly swollen eye though he was a little shy about it coz it really wasn't that sunny…his worse luck. He rode his cousins’ service and not a public jeepney, making me think he didn't want people to see him and think he got into a fight. And I believe, he also told his girlfriend last night and was assured it was just okay.
Ah sad is the day when he now worries what his girlfriend thinks and not his mom…but that is life…guess I have to get used to it.
