D-a-a-a-dy! Daddy, come see the awful dirty ring!
My wide-mouthed holler, shrill with glee, rings out loudly. A giggle sits in my throat as I anticipate my fathers’ approving grin. If my hands were not already busy clutching the bath towel wrapped around my small, almost five-year-old body, they would surely be clapping with excitement. This was all about a shared joke and well-rehearsed bit of bedtime silliness.
I am standing in our pale pink enamel bathtub filled with water reaching somewhere below my grazed knees. My neck and ankles –magnets for dirt – are still a mottled bright red from the rough scrub of Mom’s sudsy washcloth. The water I am standing in is grey and dotted with the odd floating soap bubble. All around the inside of the tub and just above the waterline there is a perfect ring of black dirt and sticky soap scum. This is the “awful dirty ring” the likes of which my despairing Mom bends to scour after most of my cleanups. I am betting that to Dad this one will be a prizewinner. Quite possibly my most awful and dirtiest ring yet.
As we hear footsteps approaching across the kitchen floor Mom pulls back the vinyl accordion door and exits the bathroom to look back from the doorway. There is not enough room for two adult bodies in between the toilet, small sink and tub. Poking his head through the door Dad sits down on the closed cover of the commode pulling his knees up tight and barely squeezing his shins in against the low edge of the tub.
Carefully inspecting the scene from one end of the tub to the other, Dad shakes his head slowly from side to side with the raised eyebrows and wide eyes of exaggerated disbelief.
Geez, Jo, is this really all yours?
Yes, it is Dad. All mine.
I emphasize the truth of my words with a firm up and down nod of my head. The glow of accomplishment wells up from my belly even if all three of us know there is a playful tease underway. Teasing was always my father’s way of showing fondness.
But I am so much bigger than you and my bathwater is never this black. How in the world does a little girl like you manage to get so dirty?
We played hard, as hard as we could, today. Out back. In the scrub. Me and Jimmy.
Well, that’s good, Jo, but I think you and I need to have a talk about that.
Taken by surprise my eyes lift to meet his, my lower lip drops open. This is an unexpected turn in our bath-time banter.