PICTURE THIS

My husband Steven and our son Alex and I were walking down the path of one of our favorite parks when I spotted what looked like a small tree.

“I bet you that’s a black walnut tree.” I said as I walked off the path to get a better look.

“Nope.” Steven said. “It looks like a locust tree to me.”

I looked over at Alex. “What do you think?”

“I think you should look it up on your app.”

I smiled. “Good answer.”

I pulled out my phone. “Ever since I downloaded this app I’m obsessed with names of plants!”

I got closer to the tree and snapped the picture. As I walked back to the path I watched as the dial spun around ticking away as it tried to identify the plant.

“So…” Steven said.

I made a small gasp as the picture popped up on the screen. “It’s poison sumac!” I turned the phone around for them to see.

“Really?” Alex took a closer look. “Did you touch the plant?”

“I don’t know!” Just then my nose got itchy. I went to itch with the sleeve of my shirt when I stopped. “Did either of you see me brush against it?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “I really wasn’t watching you.”

Steven shook his head. “I wasn’t either.”

“Great.” I went over and itched my nose against Steven’s sleeve.

“Hey!”

“Well, I can’t use mine!” I cried. “I don’t know if I touched it.”

“How bad can it be?” Alex asked.

“Poison sumac is worse than poison ivy and poison oak!” I looked around. “Why would a park let poison sumac grow!”

Steven laughed. “I’m pretty sure they’re not planting it. It just popped up.”

I looked down at my hands, still holding my phone. “Does anyone have any hand sanitizer?”

“Why would we bring hand sanitizer on a walk?”

“I don’t know.” I cried. “I just don’t want to get poison sumac!”

We began to walk again.

Steven looked over at me and saw that I was walking with my hands held away from my body still holding my phone. “Are you planning on walking like that for the rest of our walk?”

“Yup!” I could feel another itch coming on my forehead this time.

“Okay.” Alex turned around. “Let’s just go back to the car so you can use the hand sanitizer and we can go back to having a nice walk without you being so upset.”

Steven turned around with Alex.

“Thanks guys.” I sighed. “I was trying not to make a big deal out of this but…” I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s poison sumac.”

Alex started to laugh. “Walking like you’re in a zombie movie is definitely not making a big deal out of it.”

I looked over at Alex and gave him a withering look. “Poison sumac.”

I leaned closer to Steven. “Can you reach in my pocket and grab the keys? I don’t want…”

“I know.” Steven said as he got the keys out of my pocket. “Poison sumac.”

“Thanks guys.” I gave a small sigh. “Five minutes from now we’ll be back to a normal walk. I promise.”

Alex shook his head. “At least what’s normal for us.”