"Suffer the Little Children...."

Em and Abs spent Saturday night with me and we went to Church Sunday morning. The girls had missed a couple of Sundays and a lot of people were asking about them. Our congregation has a tradition of taking a minute early in the service to greet everyone and "pass the Peace of Christ." Abs uses the few minutes prior to that exercise to write notes and draw pictures which she then passes out to various people. I don't know how she chooses the recipients but they always seem to be delighted to be on the receiving end. Sunday, the girls were given a small bookmark by a frequent recipient of Abs generosity.
There was an almost imperceptible ripple of excitement as Abs seated herself in front of the church with the other children for the Children's Lesson. Abs is totally unaware of the effect she has on others. She seats herself as close as possible to the presenter and eagerly awaits the lesson. Her excitement is such that she can hardly contain herself even though I am sitting near the back of the church desperately signaling with three fingers that she should remember the three rules, which she can recite perfectly.
The presenter wrote a message on a sheet of paper and began asking questions about how messages might have been delivered while maintaining confidentiality. As she pulled out sealing wax, Abs proceeded to give a detailed account of the method, hardly allowing the presenter time to interject comments. I don't know if Abs' knowledge was gleaned from her "Egyptian phase" or the book she is constantly reading on how everything works.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the lesson ended, but it was premature. The presenter had all the children hold hands for a brief prayer. Unfortunately, Abs and Em ended up next to one another. Abs grabbed for Em's hand and Em presented one finger. Em attempted to pull away so Abs held on and "bent the little finger way back and it was on the hand that was broken." Yes, Em had sustained a fractured bone in her hand at summer camp, but we had not heard about it in six months. There was a small tussle and some sharp words right there in front of God and everyone.
I think we must add another rule: Don't sit by your sister.