Earrings

Once when I was little I got a jewelry making kit. Every little girl makes bracelets and necklaces, but this kit also had supplies for earrings; it was so exciting! Unfortunately, my ears weren't pierced and neither of my sisters had pierced ears, so it was up to my mom to wear the glorious creations I made. I made earrings all the time, and I even saved some of my favorites for myself when I got older and could wear them (Unfortunately, by now I've lost them all. Bummer). 

My sister Julia's best friend came over to our house all the time and played with us, so one time we decided to make jewelry from my kit. We made several pairs of earrings, but Beka was the only one with pierced ears, so we generously gave them all to her. She cautiously said, "I get infections from earrings unless they're a certain type of metal, I don't know if I can wear these." I said with all my unfounded 8 year old confidence, "Don't worry, these won't give you an infection." She believed me with all her 5 year old trust. 

As far as I knew, that was the end of the story, and I had completely forgotten it. But yesterday Julia and I were hanging out with Beka's family and Beka announced she was taking Julia to get her ears pierced for her 16th birthday. Then Beka's mom reminded me of that incident and filled me in on the rest of the story.

Beka wore the earrings all the time and wouldn't take them out. Of course they weren't at all the right type of metal, and they probably weren't even that clean, so they gave her an infection. Her ears were puffy and swollen and oozing pus, and the pus got into her hair, which was then nasty and crusty. It was a terrible infection, and her mom said, "Beka, take out those earrings!" Beka said, "No, Kristina said they wouldn't give me an infection, it's not these!" Beka's mom pleaded with her to take them out, but Beka trusted me and my random claims completely and said no. Finally they had to take her to a doctor who made her take out the earrings and had to put her on antibiotics.

Moral of the story: Probably no one should ever trust me.