Healing Properties

The post on the World Cookies got me thinking about sugar cookies and the last time we made them. It was a little more than a year ago, early December 2004. My dear friend Lydia, who is so often here for life's messiest events, was visiting for a couple of days. We had planned to make Christmas sugar cookies with the children and set out the utensils and ingredients we would need the night before.

That morning as I was putting my contacts in, there was a feeble knock on the bathroom door and a shaky voice said, "Um, Mom?" I opened the door to find St. George holding a bloody head in his hands with blood oozing through his fingers and dripping down his arms, off his elbows and onto the floor.

"You'd better come in," I said calmly. I opened the mirror on the medicine cabinet so that he would not see himself and be frightened. As I cleaned him, I discovered the source of the blood was a gash slightly above his nose between his eyes. I could see the bone. I called the doctor. Dearest Lydia assured me she and the kids would be fine at home, so St. George and I drove the 45 minutes into town to the pediatrician.

Todd met us there. He took one look at St. George and said, "Cool, Man, do you want to see it? Look here is a mirror. You can see your guts and everything!" It must have been the delivery. Far from being frightened, he was intrigued.

The pediatrician refused to sew him up. Too deep, delicate stitching was required. We went to the ER. They refused to sew him up. Too deep, delicate stitching was required. They sent us to the medical building to an oncall plastic surgeon. St. George grinned at him. He grinned back. I knew everything was going to be fine.

St. George climbed up onto the bed and crossed his arms on his chest, "I am a mummy."

"What kind of mummy?" asked the doctor as he prepared a needle.

"A Pharoah. See here is my crook and here is my flail."

"I see. Do you know what those things are for?"

"Nope. All I know is that they are symbols of the Pharoah's power."

When we got home, sweet Lydia met us at the door. "Don't laugh. I tried to do what you would have done. I think." Rose came running out to meet St. George with a cookie in her hand. "Are you ok? I thought it would make you feel better to eat yourself so we made you ginger-george cookies!" And sure enough, the little cookie men were wearing green T-shirts and had blue eyes and a great big red splot right between them. They were exact copies of St. George.

The cookies were magical. St. George felt better immediately, and we enjoyed those cookies for much of the Christmas season. They were very festive actually, with green T-shirt and bright red splot...