Paper Cup

Grabbing my brown and blue boat shoes I made sure my scarf was still firmly attached to my head. Carefully like a ballerina I tip-toped through the masses of shoes between the hundreds of feet tucked under the blankets, hoping not to step on the sleeping feet.

Quickly to my right I saw a small little body sleeping as though he had just fallen like a freshly cut tree. He was our Hajji mascot. Two years old, still in diapers, had his Ihram (hajj clothes) clothes diaper pined around his waist and upper body.
Generally speaking he did pretty good on the trip, but there were times that I think his mother would have liked to check herself into a mental ward to escape his two hour screaming matches pulling on her scarf and overcoat.

Once while he was on his second half hour of screaming I gave him one of my Go Ahead chocolate fruit and nut candy bars. I think everybody in the tent felt a sigh of relief when he decided to eat it. About an hour later he started up again, feeling through my backpack I confidently found another chocolate bar and tried to give it to him.

Waving it in the air to him, I could tell I didn't exist to either him or his mom, his mom was comatose by this time and he was in his full-blown toddler glory of screaming.