a shower. I tell him he can expect to lose Game Boy privileges if he doesn't, and go back to getting dressed. I don't hear any shower start up so I check on him. And I can't find him. He's not in his room. I finish getting dressed, go downstairs; no Ethan.
I make the circuit again, 'cause I really can't believe he's nowhere to be found, and because he's done this before. He's not in his room, not under his bed, not in his closet, not on the couch, not in the office on the computer...nowhere. I wake Tanya. In about 10 seconds, she finds him.
But the kicker is where he is: he's in the linen closet in the kids' bathroom, on the top shelf, wedged in with the blankets. Naked, with one foot sticking out. That's all you can see, the one foot.
We tell him to get down. He says he can't unless we close the door.
I leave Tanya to deal with it. She told me later he was scared getting down. I hope so. I got pretty scared when I realized I couldn't find him. I don't want to find his body somewhere because he holed up to avoid a shower. Think how THAT would smell.
