The Riddle of the Stinx

Last month I had a terrible Strep throat. And before it was diagnosed as Strep throat, I did what most moms do, push myself through my busy day telling myself it would pass. But my throat hurt and it hurt to speak. Roan loves to talk. I wouldn’t say he’s one of those kids who won’t stop talking but with my throat on fire, each time he asked me a question or said, “Mama?” It was like nails down a chalkboard as I tried to eek out a response. And though I kept a nice tone for the most part, on the INSIDE I wanted to say, OMFG STOP TALKING!!!!!!

On that particular day Roan and I were headed to the park with Ned. Roan had this toy with him.

He said, “I am bringing my Stinx.”

I said, “Your what?”

“My Stinx”

“It’s actually called a Sphinx. I guess that’s kind of a hard word.”

“Oh” he says, “Like Fink. Like I’m finking.”

“No” I say, “Actually, “Finking” is really supposed to be THinking. You know the TH sound.”

“Yeah, like “The” or “HoTH” (Hoth is the snowy place in The Empire Strikes BackP

“Yes.” I say. “But not like,’Fanks’ sometimes you say Fanks instead of Thanks.”

(Oh my God my throat!!)

“Well, let me just call it a Stinx. Hey Mama, get it? The Stinx stinks!”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“You know what’s really cool about the Sfinx is that there are secret treasures inside.”

“And, what’s even cooler is that people built it a long time ago, with their bare hands, before machines and electricity even existed.”

“I want to watch a show on the Sfinxxxxx. Can we find one later?”

“Sure.”

“Is the Sfinx scary?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Did you know that there is a WORD in the alphabet? N…O… And if you say it backwords it’s ON. I really like words.”

“I really do too but remember how I told you my throat hurt REALLY bad and it’s hard for me to speak?”

“Yeah. So I can just speak. And you can listen.”

And so it went on like that for hours. Roan talking about Stinxes and Sphinxes and Sfinxes and me painfully listening and smiling even though I wanted to go to sleep… like moms do.