Unspoken Joke

Sometimes I catch myself and immediately stop.  It is easier that way.   For now, I have avoided any ridicule and teasing, which would come as the result of being caught in the act.  I am seated around the kitchen table with my family.  A simple meal has been prepared, seasoned only with the joy of being together.    Nobody has shared a joke, nothing particularly funny has been said, but I cannot keep from laughing.      These moments are rare and fleeting.  The lives of my young adult children have them spending more days away from home.  Adventures await them and this table is often void of one, if not all three of them. 

Sometimes I am caught and have no defense.  I am laughing in a somewhat peculiar manner and my husband and children show no mercy.  As I throw back my head in a hilarious fit of laughter, the table grows quiet.  If only someone actually said something funny to warrant my uncensored giddiness.   All eyes are on me as they begin to uncover the source of my laughter.  The girls notice that my eyes are fixed on my son.  In most instances, he has done something completely inappropriate or downright stupid.  Years ago, I would have given him a swift smack upside his head.  But that was in the past and my daughters are the first to take note. 

“Mom is laughing at KC again!”  “She does realize that he burped the entire alphabet “.   “Did Mom just find it funny when KC threw food at us?”   “He farted right at the table – pretending to lift his butt check, and she thinks it’s cute!”

OK guilty as charged.  I delight at my sons’ antics and his carefree nature.   He tickles my funny bone with no more than a glance my way.  Call it a mother and son bond.  But it is truly his gift to me (which he inherited from his father).   

Suddenly I realize I am no longer laughing alone.  We are all together at that table sharing a good laugh (mostly at my expense).  The unspoken joke we share is felt as rich and deeply as our unspoken love.