140 The Explosive Child“What’s up?” the therapist asked.
“He just exploded in the car,” she responded.
“Over what?”
“He wants caps for his cap gun,” she replied. “Can you
imagine? An explosion over caps?”
“I can imagine,” the therapist said. “Why did he explode
over caps?”
“He wants them today,” she said, “and I don’t have time
to buy them today.”
“So you don’t object to his having caps for his cap gun,”
the therapist said.
“No, he can have all the caps he wants,” she said. “I even
tried to work things out with him!”
“Really, what was the solution?” the therapist asked ex-
pectantly.
“I told him I’d buy him the caps in June,” she said.
“June?” asked the therapist.
“June,” she said. “I told him he could have the caps in
June.”
“How did you come up with June?” the therapist
asked.
“I don’t know—it just came to me,” she said.
“Uhm, I think you may have skipped a step,” the thera-
pist said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well, you got two concerns onto the table—he wants
his caps today and you don’t have time to buy them