Gosia and Brian

After a successful trip to a hairdresser on Saturday morning with her dear brother Michał and dear cousin Grzesiu, Marta went to see her friend Gosia and her almost two-year old son, Brian. They live in a remote area of London (well, at least it’s remote from Dalston, where Marta and Kemal live), so it took Marta around 2 hours longer to get there then she initially planned and so was around 2 hours late! Gosia wasn’t too upset about it and came out with Brian to meet Marta in front of the house.

Brian was already smiling at Marta when he saw her in the distance, so all the upsetting thoughts about long trips and being late quickly vanished. They walked back home, Gosia prepared a nice meal while Marta played a bit with Brian, they ate, drunk, played some more and decided to go out. In the meantime, there were a lot of laughters from Gosia and Marta at Brian’s latest antics and fashion choices.

Here is Brian’s latest fashion choice:



Apparently, Brian’s favourite place is a small playground near their house, and so the three of them went there. The next 15 minutes were the most stressful 15 minutes of Marta’s life and even up until now, she cannot stop thinking about it and starts shaking uncontrollably whenever she’s reminded of the experience. For Gosia it was normal 15 minutes of the day, not more unusual than the remaining 1,425 minutes that she spends with Brian every day!!!! So, she was quite calm while Marta had almost torn all her hair out!

The reason for all this trauma was Brian – happily running around the playground!
Well, maybe it looked happily from Brian’s own perspective, but for Marta it was a dangerous, life-threatening, terrifying, frightening, horrifying, scary, petrifying and hair-raising experience! The are so many hazards in such a small area that a child not expecting anything can run into – there are sharp edges, swinging metal seats on chains (that people call swings, but Marta calls them guillotines), there are dangerously high slides, chains, metal polls, scary benches, high steps, merry-go-rounds (though there is nothing merry about them!) other children running happily (they are the most dangerous things!) and of course there is the ground that a child runs around on and can trip over and fall down and get hurt! Oh my God – was the only thing that Marta was able to utter after the worst 15 minutes of her life were over! Brian was still alive and had all his hands and legs still intact and both eyes and all the teeth that should be there and no blood was pouring down from his nose or other organs of his little body, and he was still smiling!!!! What a relief!!! Though to Marta’s amazement, Brian did not feel too happy about going back home – apparently he really had good time and Gosia and Marta exchanged knowing looks and there was a silent agreement between them: let’s get Brian away from this place as soon and as far as possible!

Here is Brian happily running around the playground, unaware of the many dangers lurking around him:




Here is Brian having great fun, while Marta’s hair is standing on its end:







Exhausted by the constant fear and terror she went through earlier, Marta was happy to get back to Gosia’s and Brian’s flat! She could not believe what had just happened and Gosia tried to calm her down a bit. But Marta’s mood lifted only when Gosia started bathing Brian and Brain started smiling again….

Here is Brian bathing and smiling again:



Going back home, Marta had plenty of time (that was around 2 hours again) to think over the events of the day and most importantly, the events that took place on the playground. She thought about how difficult it is to be a mother, how difficult it is to find a balance between total control (that would for Marta mean, keeping Brian all the time in her hands and sitting down on a bench and looking around and that’s it!) and letting Brian run around and experience life – dangerous as it may be….. These are the difficult questions of life and, all in all, it was a good lesson for Marta too. She learned that she was not yet ready for such choices and maybe lack of a descendant (in Brian’s age in particular and any in general) in this moment of Marta’s life, is actually a good thing. Not only for Marta, but especially for the descendant him- or herself!