On Sunday, I was plucking weeds that surround a large, plastic house that sits in our backyard. It’s about five feet tall with three windows and a door. You know what I’m talking about. Every family has one of those indestructible, ugly structures that will out live all of us in some public dump for eternity. Ian likes to run around in there. Jonah and the bigger boys sit on its roof and survey the neighborhood. At least that’s what I thought they were doing back there.
As I plucked the weeds, I got a whiff of something strong. I threw open the door to the little house and discovered a horror. The bigger boys had turned it into an outhouse. JONAH!!!!!
Jonah confessed immediately. Weeping he said that all the other boys were doing it, so he did too. Oh, great. Peer pressure already. What’s next? Whippets and bongs with a Led Zeppelin soundtrack?
The ax fell. Grounded for a week. Mostly because he did something wrong just to be cool. He accepted his punishment without protest and has been under house arrest for the past two days, instead of roaming the neighborhood freely with the gang of boys from the block.
Mother nature has also imposed her own punishment. He has poison ivy all over his butt.
Apt. 11d 
Can I ask the obvious?
Who has to clean it?
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We did it. Mostly, just had to hose down the area. But maybe we’ll have Jonah hit the inside with some disinfectant, too.
It’s funny. I had just been worrying that Jonah was too concerned about being good all the time. That having a brother with a disability was making him too grown up too soon. Well, I guess I shouldn’t have worried.
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My mom had a similar problem with my brother, who wanted to pee in the front yard all the time instead of coming in. She was embarrassed that the neighbors would see, but mostly just didn’t enjoy the smell of pee when she was tending her hosta plants. I think he got stuck doing a lot of weeding that spring.
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