A Few Tears

Wynn was crying this morning.  She repeatedly denied that anything was wrong.  This is the first time that I've seen any tears since the first night in China.

Thursday is the day I leave earliest for work.  7:15 (or as soon as I know the kids are successfully on the school bus) is the planned departure.  This week, there was no school W or Th for conferences.  I told Wynn that I would need to leave for work at 7:15, and I could not leave work until 3:00.  She could come with me or stay home.  She said (in English), "Stay home."   Gabrian, Ari, and Wynn were watching TV, and I went downstairs for a second to tell Gabrian and Ari to head for the van.  When I went back downstairs a minute later to get my laptop, she was hurriedly wiping tears away.  She said nothing was wrong and no, no, no to all my queries.

I thought maybe she was worried that she was alone.  Andrew, Cameron, and Mandy were all still sleeping.  Conor was awake but was still wrapped in blankets and morning stupor upstairs.  I gave Conor a free TV coin (TV in this house is operated by inserting coins that allow 30 minutes of operation and are earned by doing chores) and asked him to go watch Tom and Jerry with Wynn.  She looked surprised and relieved to see him, so I think my hypothesis may have been right.  She might have thought I was taking her little brother and sister away and leaving her in the house alone.  She followed me upstairs and asked "Where Mandy?"  I pointed to each respective sleeping hole, "Mandy is sleeping there.  Andrew is up there.  Cameron is there in his room."  "Cameron sleeping?" she asked.  I said yes, and she scurried back downstairs to the TV.

I hated, loathed, going to work (though the day turned out OK).  I just wanted to stay home and make sure my girl was all right.  However, she wasn't even admitting that anything was wrong and not talking to me, so there was little I could do.  Also, I was leaving her in the good hands of my big-hearted Conor, who will do everything he can to relieve someone's sadness.  (He had been in some distress himself when I told him Wynn was crying.)  I left text messages for Andrew and for Mandy to call me when they woke up so I could put them on the mission of making sure she was all right, and I checked in several times during the day to see if everything seemed OK.  All reports were good.