A Little Deception

My niece Kassandra describes herself as "one of the special people", and indeed she is. Kassie has Cerbal Palsy, and has both physical and mental challenges. When she was very little the local community used to host Round Houses for parents of special needs children. It was a chance for parents to get away, network, and attend seminars from experts about their children. One of the things they warned the parents about was that while these children are mentally handicapped they are very good at learning to manipulate their parents.

Fast forward about 15 years and it is now Kassandra's senior year of high school. Kassie has a little trouble making it a full week to school. Generally she prefers to take at least one day off during the week, if not a full week. This generally starts the night before her personally scheduled day off, by beginning to cough, sniffle and vehemently declare to her mother that she is sick. She adamantly insists she has a cold (I must admit she sounds very convincing) and that her mother should agree and cancel the school bus. Meanwhile my sister Nancy begins to stew and then simmer. I must admit I would get pretty mad as well if my daughter decided by herself to continually take days off.

And so it was that as of the first two weeks of school, Kassie managed to take a day off in the first week. Meanwhile, on Monday of this week she began her sniffling and coughing. In a momentary stroke of genius, I came up with a little plan...

"Kassie, you know I work in a laboratory, and we have to make sure that people that are coming into the lab aren't sick. So I have this special paper that you put on your tongue and if you are sick it turns a special color and if you aren't...it turns another color. I didn't know you weren't feeling well, but I'll be sure to bring that home tomorrow, that way you'll be able to prove to your Mom when you are sick"

Oh the power...the look she gave me was priceless. The next morning I noticed the school bus coming down the street. Later that day I got a call from Nancy to notify me that my niece was feeling better and wouldn't need the special paper. I have a broad spectrum litmus paper anyway, but just my luck, she really did get a cold this weekend. I've been putting her off on showing her the colors...hopefully my deception can last until May.