|
The St. John's campus in Santa Fe has a concrete pond on its quad, donated by Greer Garson. Once, when we out for some summer alumni programs, I was walking with my son (he was 2) in a lobby on the edge of the quad. Someone stopped me to talk. I turned away from him for a few seconds. Suddenly, he ran out of the swinging glass doors. Of course, as soon as I caught this out of the corner of my eye, I chased him. By the time I got outside, he had fallen in the pond, and was so shocked that instead of standing up (it was shallow), he was floating face down in it. I plucked him out of the pond, utterly shaken, and took him back to the condo for a warm bath and change. He was fine, it had happened quickly, but oddly, no one in the vicinity reacted, either to stop him or to get him out: they were a few students doing stuff over the summer, and it was too unexpected for them to register quickly. Had I been called away, and he had made this unexpected dash, he might have been more seriously hurt. Toddlers are not totally predictable, and one cannot watch them every second....... |
