Make Up a Story
Stories from Around the World
Whatever Happened to Sweet Pea?
The scene is a bazaar or fundraiser at a carnival. When they came to the bazaar they hit a truck and the wheels fell off. This poor baby was crying, "Help me, help me!" A DWI hit the truck. Jerry said the bear was drunk but Joan said the teddy can't be drunk because "He's made for sweet people." He drinks only ginger ale. His name is Sweet Pea. He might be "on" something that makes him drunk, but he is on a tire. He's in a hurry to get home to lock the door, said Alfred. Looks like he needs to pee.
The kids in the truck decide they want to see what's going on. The parents and children give different versions of what happened to the officer (after the crash). Whatever they're saying comes straight out of their imagination. They don't feel like children. They just want to tell the story of what happened from their imagination. They want it to be very bizarre, very elastic, said Gene. They start having two, three, or four different versions.
"I want to tell you about when the fleas came over and fire was coming out of them!"
Whatever the officer yields to makes him look very silly. Now the officer is asking the parents for their driver's licenses. The kids know what they're doing and they're getting the giggles.
There are three to five children. Sweet Pea belongs to all of them. They have to share. Sweet Pea has a little cousin that got killed. He stayed in their hearts and can speak for himself.
It gets more and more hilarious when one kid says, "I haven't even told you about the wolf I saw!" The wolf was in their imagination, said Alfred. The kids want to be in charge because it gives them a rush. They want to be in charge. They can do it simultaneously or not. Once they get into what it's all about, the thing is about having fun and telling a story that never happened, said Gene.
But the officer needs a real story! He writes down, "Kids can be kids!" He asks them, knowing they're children, if they're sure this happened. They just make more stuff up. Part of the beauty of this is that they can make it stop or go forward, said Gene. It ended up being a thing rather than a person. A challenge to officers is to tell which is the real story. This happens all the time. So many times officers don't get the data they want because the children are in a hysterical state, said Betty. Children will start screaming at each other. They're going to put their two cents in, owning it. The officer may or may not get the story out of the kids. If you have a gang leader, one might step up and tell the story, which shows the maturity of the kid. Officers know that younger children will fabricate.
What does Sweet Pea think of all this? Sweet Pea is confused! I'd be confused too, if I was Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea is the center of the subject. Jerry said, he's thinking, "What happened to me?"
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