学校が終わってお迎えのとき、いつものごとくお母さんたちと立ち話。子どもたちは校庭を走り回って遊んでいた。ところがいつの間にかモメごとに発展したらしい、ものすごい形相で逃げてくる娘。それをこれまたものすごい形相で追う男の子。男の子はものすごく怒っていて、私の前に逃げ込んだ娘を羽交い絞めにする。苦しかったらしくすごい勢いで泣き始めた娘。とりあえず引き離そうと思い、大泣きの娘の手を引いて帰宅。話を聞いてみれば、ジャケットを振り回して遊んでいた娘に男の子が近づき、ジャケットの端が当たったらしい。かなり痛かったのだろう。わざとやったと思ったらしい。結局双方とも家に戻って親が話をきき、双方ともに反省し、男の子がわざわざあやまりにきてくれた。きっと言いたくなかったのだろう、腹話術師のように唇をうごかさないで「ごめん」 娘も「ごめん」 ということで一件落着だけど、しかしながらあのすごい形相で逃げてきたときの娘の顔。あんな顔はじめてみたけど、あの切羽つまった顔は、、、まぎれもなくおじいちゃん（主人のほうの）の顔！10年ほど前に、旅館で腕時計が盗まれたと大騒ぎして探し回っていたときの切羽詰ったおじいちゃんの顔を思い出す（結局、腕時計はおじいちゃんが自分で金庫にしまったのを忘れていた）。血は争えないねえ。After school at pick-up time, we mothers got into chatting as usual. Kids were running around on the grass as usual. Somehow they got into an incident however, and I saw my daughter running toward me. She seemed really scared and desperate. After her was this boy, who also looked desperate and angry, running like crazy. She fell on the ground at my feet and he truckled her with his arms around her shoulders. She bursted out crying. Without knowing exactly what happened, I took her hand and headed home, since that choice seems the best at the moment. After she calmed down, she started to explain. She was spinning with her jacket and the tip of it hit the boy. It must have been really painful, because he was really mad. His mother also talked to him at home, and he came over afterwords to apologize. He apologized, and so did she, and now things are cool. But after all this ordeal, I was thinking of something else. That is the desperate look on her face when she was running away. The face reminded me exactly.... of her grand father (on my husband's side). That expression on her face was exactly the one I remember when the grandpa was desperately looking for his watch that he believed he got stolen in a hotel room during the family vacation almost 10 years ago (the watch was later found in a safe in the room, which he put there himself).
