As I sat chatting in the first aid post on Saturday, enjoying the warmth from a sun that we’ve hardly noticed all summer, a successon of small boys came past the entrance, and pretended to have various serious injuries.
The first boy must have been around 8 or 9 years old, a small lad, but well-dressed and obviously looked after by his parents. He clutched his leg and then his arm, cried out, threw himself on the floor and announced that he’d ‘broken his neck’.
Then, making sure we’d observed him, he got up and ran away.
The third time he did this, I beckoned him over.
To my surprise, he came over to me.
“Have you ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf?” I said
“No” said the boy, uncertainly.
“Well,” I said, “After all you’ve done – if you actually do hurt yourself today, we’re not going to believe you’re really injured, are we? And then we won’t come and look after you, will we?”
The boy looked thoughtful. Then he shook his head a little.
Quietly he walked away to his friends.
We didn’t see him again.
………………Its definitely a boy thing. Girls don’t do this. Why is that?
I thought you were going to say: “and then I broke his neck”
What do you take me for?!!