PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!

I drove my son to school every morning for years. We would stop at a donut shop by the house and get breakfast. He would stay in the car and I’d go in and get what he wanted. So one day, Ben was about 9 or 10, I walked into the donut shop and I did what I like to call "A James Brown."

I don’t know exactly what happened. I just know that I was down and then right back up again. I had on a dress and heels and I slipped and did the splits. The place was full of customers and there was a big plate glass window so everybody outside could see me too! I was so embarrassed and I think that’s why I was only down for a minute and I came right back up. I mean, I swear I heard James Brown do his signature "Hah" and I looked around not only to see if anybody saw me fall down but also to see if Maceo was about to put that signature "James Brown Cape" on me.

I still don’t understand how nobody saw me!!!!

I walked up to the counter and got the donuts and headed back to the car. I already had in my head what I was gonna say to Ben. "Ben, mama fell down in there!!!" But, as I got closer to the car, I realized I didn’t see him in the car. I just THOUGHT nobody saw me fall. Ben was at that age where his mama embarrassed him on a regular basis....usually daily. When I fell down, he crawled down into the floorboard of the car so that nobody would see him with me. He wouldn’t get up until we had gone way past the train tracks. I’m sure this was in case any of the cars traveling beside us had been in the donut shop and saw me fall down.

The next day, just like every school day, we went back to the donut shop. There weren’t very many people inside the shop that morning. I said to Ben as I got out of the car, "I wonder if the owners saw me fall down or if anybody else told the owners they saw me fall down?" Now my kid knew me well. He knew what I was gonna do. I marched in that donut shop, made my order and said "hey, did you guys or anybody else see me fall down in here yesterday?" I told them that Ben had crawled down into the floorboard of the car and as I told them that, I looked outside and pointed to the car to show them Ben. But, you couldn’t see him in the car. Again, he had crawled down into the floorboard because he knew I was gonna tell them about the incident and he was embarrassed!

Oh, and no, nobody saw me – except for Ben.