A Simple Solution

I was sitting at the table, eating breakfast, and my Dad was reading the newspaper in his usual seat.  It was a quiet, ordinary morning.  I'm pretty sure I was eating Froot Loops at the time.  Mom had already been up, made breakfast for herself and Dad, and then disappeared into the bedroom to do whatever Mom did back there in the morning.  It was a nice, quiet time.  Some minutes later, my Mom came walking slowly down the hall with an odd look on her face, her right arm held out like a German salute, her left hand probing her right shoulder.  She started rotating that arm in little circles.  Apparently, something in that shoulder was bothering her.

"Dad?" she asked, a certain amount of concern in her voice.

"Mm-hmm?" he replied without looking away from his paper.  When she didn't respond right away, he let his paper drop and looked up at her, only to see her standing there, still moving her outstretched arm in little circles.

"It hurts when I do that," she said, a pained expression on her face.

Dad paused for a few seconds and then looked at me.  I could see in his face that he'd been waiting for this moment for a looooong time.  He turned back to her.

"Well, don't do that," he replied, just as straight-faced as he could manage. 

Mom glared at him and then turned to walk back to the bedroom, still moving her arm in those little circles.

That's when he busted out laughing.  He laughed so hard that his face turned purple and I thought I might have to resuscitate him, which would have been difficult since I was laughing as well.  Dad was always one for finding the simplest way to solve a problem.

Ok, so maybe you had to be there, but Dad and I thought this was hilarious.  Mom did not.