By Sallie Mattison Young I stopped brushing my hair to look down at my 3-year-old. “Crystal, what happened to your eye?” “It’s hurting!” Her lower lip quivered. “It’s all gunky! Do you have a fever?” I checked her forehead. “It itches.” “Well, it looks like you’re allergic to something. Were you sleeping with the kitty again?” Silence. “Were you?” Guilty silence. “Crystal Ann, I’ve told you not to sleep with the kitty because you might be allergic to her. Now look at your eye!” “She was, Mom. She was sleeping with the kitty,” informed five-year-old Tiffany. “Well, I’m afraid I have bad news. If Crystal is allergic to the kitty, then we will have to give the kitty away. We can’t have her eyes swelling up all the time, can we?” Thoughtful silence. “Mommy, couldn’t we keep the kitty, and give away Crystal instead?”
About the Author: Sallie Mattison Young is a former journalist and current technical writer whose greatest accomplishments are her four beautiful daughters. During her journalism career, she wrote investigative news, features, columns, and editorials for various daily and weekly newspapers, and also penned articles for local city magazines. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Seeker Magazine, Lovewords, and Red River Review. She has self-published limited editions of two chapbooks dedicated to her two oldest daughters, "Crystal in the Middle" and "Tiffany's a Teen," which can also be viewed online in her library at Pathetic Poets Society http://www.pathetic.org/library/210/ http://geocities.com/one_writer_2000/ | 
