Leave Well Enough Alone

There are some people you run into who just aren’t happy unless something extraordinary is going on. My sister was one of those people.

One day, when we were fairly young, my sister and I were riding in the backseat of the family car and we were a little more rambunctious than my father wanted us to be. He kept warning us to calm down but, my sister did not heed the warning. Finally, my father said to us, “I am going to tear your little tails up when we get home.”

My sister whispered, “If we are really quiet and really good, he will forget to spank us.” Well, we were the best little angels we could possibly be. We got home and got ready for bed.

 No spanking yet. 

My father came in and we all got down and said our prayers. 

No spanking yet.

We climbed into bed and I thought we were home free. He did forget to spank us. My sister said, “See, I told you. He forgot to spank us.”

Then, this brilliant little child, who had masterminded the whole, “let’s be quiet and he will forget to spank us plan”, got up and went and said to my father, “You forgot to spank us, ha ha.”

I don’t remember if he spanked us then or not. What I do remember is thinking that she just couldn’t help herself. Evidently, she could not be happy with just getting away with it. She had to let him know she got away with it.