This child is not distraught because it is 39 degrees outside and she has no clothes. Nor is she concerned about the red marker stains on her face, the bruise on her scrawny leg, or the fact that her grandmother pulled her bangs back with an ugly clip and then got out the camera.

     Being stuck overnight with an evil gramma who refuses to get the Chutes and Ladders game from the car until morning did not elicit half as much sorrow. She even managed to smile (actually beam a few times) when the demanding gramma forced her to help carry in groceries and cook dinner.

     A dire situation much worse than anything the average four-year-old child will ever experience is responsible for this sadness. First, the gramma lost her memory. Despite multiple reminders, she was unable to remember anything about the new cousin who showed up at Chucky Cheese with a new puppy for this grandchild on her birthday. The cousin’s name meant nothing to this senile grandmother and the perfectly replicated yipping of the puppy did nothing to jog her memory.

     The hand-to-the-head distress came when the gramma swore that no one bothered to tell her when a shark snuck into the little girl’s room and ate the puppy. This gramma is waiting for morning to make an appointment with a good therapist to find out what happened to her memory.