A few months ago, after my son and husband caught the new Indiana Jones movie at the theater, my son put together his very own Indiana Jones outfit. For most of the summer, dressed in his overly long tshirt (worn backwards so only the white, not the brand on the front, showed), long-sleeved brown checked shirt that stands in for Indy's leather jacket, and his floppy sun hat (REI calls it a 'Research Rambler'), he ran around the yard singing the Indiana Jones theme song and lassoing trees with the homemade whip which he made from stripping a jump rope of its plastic handles.
The best part was that he kept his rope stuffed in his shorts. Not in a pocket--inside his shorts. Even now, several months after the Indy costume has been put to bed, I can still get a giggle at the memory of the looks on others' faces when Liam would reach into his khaki shorts and pull out that rope. It was a good thing his tshirt was so long.
I didn't ever have the heart to tell him that some moms were moving their children to the other side of the park when he dove into his pants and came out with a length of rope. After all, even if most of the kids were momentarily stunned when he reached into his waistband for his whip (ha-ha), once he had the whip in hand, they all looked a little envious that he had a whip in the first place, not to mention the handy storage space. Kids don't, after all, have our framework to find humor or dismay in such behavior.
He was really proud of his costume, and I was, too: this is the same boy who had always refused to dress up until moments before we were leaving the house to Trick-or-Treat. He never got into the whole costume thing that some of his peers did when they were toddlers, and the closest he's come in recent years to dressing up when it's NOT Halloween is playing 'Pretty, Pretty Princess' with his sister (the game requires players to wear jewelry as they win it). So, maybe you can understand why I didn't tell him to find a new whip storage, or ask him to take off the outfit completely, even when I realized he was sleeping in it.
I was afraid that if I asked him to take it off, he would never put it on again, and I wanted to enjoy this usually wise-beoynd-his-years boy who, for that brief moment in time was just young. In short, I was afraid if I made him take it off, even to wash, he would never become Indy again. Turns out I was half right.
The last time he was in full Indy gear was a very hot day, at least hot for us in the Pacific Northwest. The kids and I were walking to the park, only three blocks away, but Liam was, as I said, in full Indy gear. When my just-short-of-an-order suggestion to take off his "leather jacket," was met with point-blank refusal, I tried logic, which usually works on him.
"It has to be 85 degrees out," I told him, "and it's humid today."
"Indiana Jones doesn't take off his jacket, and he doesn't take off his hat," I was told.
"Indiana Jones isn't real," I countered.
"Don't care. Not doing it."
I suppose, in retrospect, I should have forced him to take it off. But as I said, I was so very reluctant to do that. Worst case, I figured he'd get hot and take it off himself. I guess I didn't realize how very wedded he was to being Indiana Jones.
Despite the abundance of shade at the park, my son chose the most sunniest area in which to run around and whip out his...whip...(sorry, but the puns and little jokes are endless, here) for at least half an hour. He had a drink of water, and then climbed onto the tire swing with his sister, who can easily achieve a Guiness World Record of Tire Swing Spinning, even after a full meal. He did this several times: play, swing, play, swing. Then we played a game of "Icebergs and Boats," which he made up and included lots and lots of running and lassoing. It only lasted ten minutes, if that, because I felt the ruless were slanted in the boats' favors (I was the iceberg, of course), but it was apparently long enough.
My son climbed back onto the tire swing with his crazy spin-addicted sister and within minutes he was pale and clammy and begging me to stop.
Two minutes later, despite moving him to the shade and having long drinks of water, he was close to vomiting. At that point, I forced him to give up his "leather jacket" so I could soak it in the drinking fountain and put it over his head.
"Nooooo!" he cried in outrage, but when I reminded him of the scene in one of the Indy movies where indy was riding through the desert and tied his shirt over his head, Liam agreed that it would, in fact, be something Indy would do. Still, he fell into a quiet which disturbed me.
We made it home. I tucked Liam onto a picnic bench in the shade and my daughter and I half-ran, half-walked up the three blocks to the house. We arrived just as my husband was pulling in, so we piled into the car and drove back to pick up Liam, who was still clammy and pale and very, very quiet. That night, he went into his room and, for the first time in months, undressed for bed.
His Indy outfit was in the hamper, and it wasn't just a holding place for the next morning.
Liam has gone on to play Indiana Jones since then, but without the outfit. He has decided to be Indiana Jones for Halloween, even. But instead of resurrecting his homemade outfit, he chose a store-bought costume.
"Yours is much better," I told him. "Ehhh," he replied. "I can't wear that anymore."
I didn't press, because I sensed he wouldn't have been able to put his feelings into words, anyway. Much like that alien skin that crawled onto Peter Parker in the second (or third?) Spiderman, that outfit was a whole unit for Liam. Unlike an alien skin that can regenerate, Liam's alter ego--the illusion he created for himself--was destroyed once a single piece was taken away from it.
"I'm sorry," I whisper to him sometimes at night, when he is fast asleep and there's no chance of him hearing me. Even as I'm doing it, I know I am neither the first nor the last mother to be sorry for having to do what is necessary, anymore then this will be the last time I will wish I could have done something different.
"I'm sorry," I tell my sleeping boy. "But sometimes Mommy's gotta' do what's she gotta' do."
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