A flower leaves its scent (even Clorox)on the hands of the giver

[michaelboy]

When I was young, I remember sitting on the top of the basement stairs and watching my mom doing laundry. She would stir that Clorox bleachy smelling super-hot Tide sudsy mix in the Maytag wringer washer with a wooden stick (a tapered wooden paddle).

Once I fell down those stairs and my mom was so worried that I had hurt myself. But I was in socks and she told me over and over again NOT to play on the steps in socks but I still didn't listen.

When I was five, I swallowed a blue marble that had rolled out from under the laundry tubs. Trouble was, I swallowed my tongue with it and she swore that I was turning as blue as the marble. I remember her turning me upside-down and desperately pounding on my back and then finally using her fingers down my throat to free my tongue and the marble.