A Lesson In Karma

I love my sister Julia. She’s always been so sweet and innocent. There was this one time though, when she was almost two, that she messed up my other sister Allison’s room. I’m sure she didn’t mean to. She just pulled out a lot of toys and didn’t bother to clean up. Now Allison is usually very understanding and thoughtful, but when she walked into her room and saw everything amiss, she jumped to a conclusion. She was only four, so I guess I understand, but she assumed that somebody had messed up her room, and that somebody was me.

Now she rushed to Mom and Dad, who were the model of fair and cautious judgment, and told them that I had purposefully destroyed her room. I was called in and of course denied it. I had done nothing. I explained that it was Julia and how I had seen her playing in Allison’s room earlier. Unfortunately, Allison was so convinced that it had been me that she lied and said she had seen me do it.

Now I had always been such an honest and responsible child, but for some reason my parents took my sister Allison’s word over mine. I was sent to my room for the night, “More for lying than messing up Allison’s room,” they said. I had planned to go play with Orion, my friend from across the street, so this truly broke my poor little six year old heart.

Now not ten minutes into my punishment, I decided to use the bathroom. I didn’t really need to go; I was just trying to escape the prison that my room had become. That’s when I saw Julia, right in front of the bathroom, playing at the top of the stairs in one of those wheeled stroller chairs. With her back turned to me I walked behind her toward the bathroom, and there she went careening down the stairs, her crying somehow like giggles.

I stepped gingerly into the bathroom and silently, slowly closed the door. I waited till I heard a satisfying thump, then I flushed the toilet and calmly washed my hands. As I exited the bathroom I asked surprisingly (And perhaps a bit loudly) “What happened?” Now Allison being the concerned and curious girl she was, came rushing to the top of the stairs the minute she heard the almost gleeful screams of Julia.

My parents, being so responsible and attentive were quick to react and had rushed to the bottom of the stairs just in time to see Julia’s final bounce onto the floor bellow. They looked up to see an attentive Allison, leaning forward peering down at the now bruised and shaken Julia.

Though my parents are typically the most forgiving and patient of people, they saw fit to punish Allison in ways best not described and I eventually went back to my room to carry out my now deserved sentence, glad that I had taught both my sisters a lesson. Allison now knew that lying could have less immediate repercussions and Julia had a firm grip on the basics of gravity. My family has always been so good about helping each other learn new things.

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